d5lV9 




Book K^SW^ 



GUIDE 



LAKES OP KILLARNBY, 

ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS, AFTER THE DESIGNS 
OF GEORGE PETRIE, ESQ. 



BY THE 

REV. G. N. WRIGHT, A. M. 



LONDON: 

PRINTED FOR BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY, 

PATERNOSTER ROW. 



1822. 
L 






^S3 



c>t 



Printed by T. C. Hansaid, Peterborough-court, Fleet-street, London. 



PREFACE 



Although there have been pubhshed many pic- 
turesque and poetic descriptions of the sublime scenery of 
Lough Lein, not a single Chiide or Directory for Visiters 
has yet seen the light. The earliest and most original 
work upon the subject, is Bushe's Hibemia Curiosa, 
written at a period (1764) when the intercourse between 
Dublin and the distant counties of Ireland was much 
restricted, and attended with difficulty and expense; 
when the remote parts of the kingdom were imper- 
fectly known, and shamefully misrepresented. In the 
present very improved state of society, and with such 
facility of communication as now exists in this country, 
the Hibemia Curiosa can hardly be expected to pre- 
serve the character of being a work either of information 
in matters of research, or of utility as a directory for 



ly PREFACE. 

Travellers. Sir R. C. Hoare has very briefly, but with 
the hand of a master, touched upon the enchantuig 
scenery of this admired spot. The few pages he has 
written are the result of learning, taste, and observation. 

Mr. Young and Mr. Curw^en have introduced brief, 
but interesting sketches of Killarney, in their agricultural 
toiurs of Ireland ; and Smith, in his inimitable History of 
the County of Kerry, speaks of the Lakes, Islands, Monas- 
teries, &c. of this very romantic spot, in a manner 
highly creditable to his talents as an historian, and has 
given an imperishable record of the original importance 
of this neighbourhood in a civil and ecclesiastical point 
of view. Such a series of county histories as these of 
Smith, would greatly contribute to establish the past and 
present importance of Ireland as a kingdom ; and to 
patronize and encourage such a work, would immortalize 
the character of the Royal Dublin Society, and vindicate 
the Irish from the imputation of being deficient in that na- 
tional feeling, on which their neighbours of North Bri- 
tain so greatly pride themselves. 

To speak, then, more immediately of the tourists who 
have written upon the scenery of Lough Lein, — Mr. 



PREFACE. V 

Holmes is the author of a very pleashig and instractlvc 
Tour through the South of Ireland, into which he has 
introduced a tnie and accurate, but too concise account 
of Killarney and its adjacent scenery. There is, besides, 
a work of uifinitely higher character upon this subject, 
now some years before the public, containing considerable 
local knowledge, and manifesting a variety of information 
on matters of general interest, — we allude to Weld's Illus- 
trations. It contains also an historic and general account 
of Kenmare and Bantry; yet, although an extremely in- 
teresting and useful work for the residents of Kerry, it 
does not point out what measures the Tourist is to adopt, 
the moment he arrives at the Inn in Killarney> and at 
each subsequent period of his stay. 

It is in this latter capacity, viz. of a Guide to the dif- 
ferent objects of curiosity and amusement, that the pre- 
sent little publication is offered to the world. It pro- 
fesses to afford every necessary direction to the Tourist 
whose object is to visit the Lakes of Killarney, and 
their surrounding beauties : it points out the time re- 
quired, the modes of conveyance, the inns on the road, 
and the probable expense : it treats of the Natural, Civil, 
and Ecclesiastical History, of the various productions of 



Tl PEIFACE. 

Nature and remains of Art ; and concludes with such 
directions as will enable the expert Tourist to dispose of 
his time so judiciously, that the scenery and phenomena 
of KiUamey may be perfectly viewed and admired in a 
tour of either three or two days, or even of one. In 
the concluding pages wiU be found a list of all the 
Islands, to which names have been appropriated, and 
the heights of the surrounding Mountains, 

The Author of the present Volume, then, professes to 
be without a rival; for this reason, that none of his 
predecessors have been content to appear in a less dig- 
nified character than that of Historian, Tourist, &c. 
while he will rest satisfied, and consider the ends of his 
labour fully accomplished, if he shall prove a useful or 
entertaining companion to the visiter, even in the humble, 
unaspiring character of a Guide. 

Dublin, March 30th, 1822. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 
ROAD FROM Cork to Killarney 1 

Town o» Killarney " , ., 6 

Lower Lake :— 

Ross Island 11 

O'Doriohoe's Prison 17 

inisfeUen Island 19 

O'Sullivan's Cascade 26 

TcRK Lake 39 

Passage to the Upper Lake 43 

Upper Lake 48 

MccRDSS Abbey 56 

MccRuss Demesne 63 

Mangbrton Mountain 66 

Aghadoe 71 

Dunloe Castle 81 

Ascent op Carran Tual , 83 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

P»ga 
DiHECTIOKS FOR ToURISTS 86 

One Day's Tour 87 

Two Days Tour , 89 

Three Days Tour 92 

A List of Islands in the diiFei-ent Lakes 96 

Mountains 97 



Turk Lake, to face the Title 

Ross Castle page 14 

The Eagle's Nest 44 ^'^ 

Mac Gilj Cuddy's Reeks, from Aghadoe 49 y 

The Interior of Mucruss Abbey 58 «^ 

Map of the Lakes 96 V 



GUIDE 



LAKES OF KILLARNEY 



Moaflff from €otk to IStillavnc^. 

y 
The Town of Killarney is situated in the barony of 
Magunihy in the county of Kerry, at a distance of 167 
miles, three furlongs, from Dublin, by the Cork road, 
and 1 62 miles,^ six fui'longs, by the Limerick road, (by 
way of Tarbert.) The inconvenience attending the 
journey from Limerick to Tralee generally deters the 
tourist from venturing by that route, whUst on the other 
hand, the extreme facility and convenience of travelling 
on the Cork road, would induce it to be preferred, although 
the advantage in the actual number of mUes might be in 
favour of the former. Supposing, then, that the traveller 
has reached Cork by the usual mode of conveyance, the 
mail, he will there find a coach ready to start at six the 
following morning for Tralee, by way of KUlarney. The 
Town of Killarney is but forty-five miles and one furlong 
from Cork, and as the coach starts at so early an hour. 



^ ROAD FROM CORK 

the journey is made totally in day-light. The inter- 
vening country does not possess many attractions of 
a picturesque description, but its vicinity to the in- 
teresting scenery of Lough Lein, renders it an anxious 
Snve; at every step, some remarkable remnant of the 
strength, or ancient splendour, of the feudal castles, and 
many a venerable monastic pile, excite attention and 
awaken curiosity. At the distance of four miles and six 
furlongs from Cork, upon the south side, stands the 
Castle of Ballincolly ; it is a large square building, on the 
summit of a natural eminence of rock, rising perpen- 
dicularly in the centre of an extensive plain, in which 
not another hill, moimd, or elevated spot of any sort is 
to be seen. From its situation it must have beeh im- 
pregnable; the out-works and flanking 'owers, besides 
much of the castle, are in a tolerable state of preserva- 
tion. The Barretts, an ancient and illustrious family, 
were the proprietors of this noble castle; the last of 
these, William Barrett, being concerned ini the Earl of 
Desmond's rebellion, submitted to the merjjy of Queen 
Elizabeth, in the year 1 600. Its estimat'on, as a place 
of strength, may be gathered from this, that Cromwell 
constantly kept troops here, and it was also garrisoned in 
the wars in James the Second's time. 

On the other side of the road, on the banks of the 
Lee, is an extensive barrack, with a powder-mill at- 
tached to it; but both these are in a great measure dis- 
used since the termination of the continental wars. 

Within a short distance of Ballincolly, stand the Castle 
and Abbey of Kilcrea ; the former is in a ruinous condi- 
tion, but the abbey and steeple are still sufficiently per- 
fect to gratify cm-iosity, the barbicans, platform and 
fosse still remaining. The monastery was founded in 



TO KILLARNEY. 3 

the year 1456, under the invocation of St.Brigid, by Cro^ 
mac McCarthy, the Great Prince of Desmond, who was 
murdered by his brother Owen, and was interred in 
the centre of the choir, in 1494, as the inscription on his 
monument testifies.* The quantity of human skulls and 
bleached bones, strewn amongst the ruins, sufficiently 
declare the veneration in which the abbey grounds have 
always been held as a cemetery. The nave and choir 
ai-e still standing, and there is a very beautiful arcade of 
three pointed arches, supported by massive pillars of 
marble, still remaining on the south side of the nave. 
In the choir are several tombs of ihe Clancartys and 
Barretts, whose families have always resisted the total 
demolition of the castle and abbey. The steeple is 
only eighty feet in height, nor does it ap'pear to have 
ever been more lofty ; it stands between the nave and 
choir, and rests on pointed arches. 

The approach to the abbey is really terrific and ap* 
palling, and cannot fail to excite the consideration of a 
future state, in the most unfeelingj obdurate, and un- 
believing minds. A long narrow passage is enclosed by 
high walls, entirely composed of human skulls and bones, 
cemented by moss; the gloom and desolation are in- 
creased by the shade of a range of lofty oaks, which are 
at a sufficient distance to produce an awful gloominess, 
without relieving the deadly, melancholy, despondence, by 
an interposing contrast even of vegetable life. There 
is an old wooden cross, at the termination of the avenue, 
which has not yielded to the pelting of the pitiless storm 
during a lapse of two centuries and upwards. This 



• See Ulster Annals, MSS. Trin. Coll. Dub. : also M3S. in Marsh'i 
Library, and the Monasticon Hib. 



4 ROAD FROM CORK 

valley of death is watered by the river Bride, which, 
flowing tranquilly by the abbey, winds towards the 
north, and falls into the Lee. 

At the dissohition of religious houses in Ireland, the 
lands of this abbey were granted to Lord Muskery, but, 
after the wars of 1641, Oliver Cromwell bestowed them 
upon the Lord Broghil. In these wars the castle and 
abbey were much injured, but were afterwards repaired 
by Captain Wm. Bayley. "Ware says, the Roman Ca- 
tholics repaired the abbey in 1604. 

Near the junction of the Bride and Lee stand the 
Church and Village of Ovens.* Here is an extraordinary 
cave, beneath a limestone arch; in some places it is 
upwards of twenty feet high, in others, not more than 
six; there are numerous diverging corridors within 
about twenty yards from the entrance, some of them 
returning back into the cave, and others continuing to 
a length as yet vmascertained. Strangers should be ex- 
tremely cautious of venturing into this Cretan laby- 
rinth, without such a clue as Ariadne gave to Theseus, 
for the guides are not at all acquainted with the intricacies 
of this subterranean wonder. The sides and roof are 
covered with a stalactical matter, or gypsum, which is 
a most efficacious cement. Persons are said to have pro- 
ceeded for a quarter of a mile, or upwards, into this 
grotto in safety, and the peasantry about the village 
assert, that it reaches as far as Gill-Abbey, near Cork. 

Several other castles are seen, but at distances too great 
from the highroad to admit of being visited, unless by re- 
sidents in the neighbourhood ; amongst them are Crooks- 
town, Inch, and Kilcowra. Near Crookstowu, on the 

* Perhaps a conn ption of Owens, 



TO KILLARNEY. 5 

south, lies RyiB-court, the seat of Colonel Rye. The next 
village of consequence is Macroom, fourteen miles, two 
furlongs, from Ballincolly, and nineteen miles from Cork. 
The Castle of Macroom, the seat of R, Hedges Eyre, 
Esq. is a stately building, modernised. It was at first 
built by the Carews, shortly after the English conquest, 
though its erection is also attributed to the Daltons. It 
was repaired and beautified by Teig Macarty, who 
expired there in 1563, and who was father of the cele- 
brated Lord Muskery mentioned by Camden. The late 
Earls of Clancarty rebuilt and altered it, after its de- 
struction by fire in the wars of 1641. When Dean 
Swift visited this country, he expressed the warmest ad- 
miration of this castle and demesne ; and in one of its 
apartments was born the famous Admiral Sir William 
Pen.* The Roman Catholic Chapel of Macroom is also 
worth visiting. 

At a little distance to the south is seen the Castle of the 
Two Views; farther on, Drishane Castle, the seat of 

Captain Wallace; and Mount Leader, the seat of 

Leader, Esq. Mill-street, the next post town, is ten 
miles and two furlongs from Macroom ; it consists of 
but one street, and could afford but wretched accommo- 
dation to travellers. From Mill-street to Killarney, six- 
teen miles, two furlongs, the road winds through a 
dreary, desolate wild of heath and moss. 

On the left, the mountahis gradually raise their lofty 
heads, and indicate the approach to scenes of a far dif- 
ferent character ; a long range of continuous hills extends 
from the boundary of the County of Cork to the Lakes 



• For many more extremely interesting anecdotes relative to this an- 
cient bnilding, the wader is referred to the Pa<:ata Hibernia. 
b3 



6 TOWN OF KILLARNEY. 

of Killarhey : two of these hills, called the Paps, are 
particularly remarkable for the regularity of their convex 
or conical form ; these are connected with the hDls of 
Glan Flesk, which overhang O'Donohoe's country ; and in 
the midst of this pathless waste, stands the castle of this 
once illustrious chieftain, still preserving the appellation of 
O'Donohoe's Castle. Adjacent to these mountains is the 
stupendous Mangerton, sullenly over-looking his less im- 
portant neighbours. The approach to the town of KU- 
larney increases henceforth in interest, in beauty, and 
in grandeur, at every step; Mr. Colesman's Castle, in a 
most conspicuous and commanding situation, first attracts 
the attention; and Mr. Cronan's (the Park) is a very 
beautifully situated demesne. 

By the arrangement lately adopted, the coach from 
Cork arrives at Killarney for dinner. 



Toe Town of Killarney consists of two principal streets, 
called the Old and New Streets ; it was first brought into 
notice as a place of trade, by the iron- works in its vicinity ; 
and the improvements effected by the encreased expendi- 
ture, while the mines were worked, are still obvious in 
the comfortable appearance of the town in general. 

There are three tolerable inns, two in the main street, 
nearly opposite the church, and the Kenmare Arms in 
New-street. The most agreeably situated is that imme- 
diately opposite to the church. Near this inn is a public 
reading-room, to which strangers are politely invited. 



TOWN OF KILLARNEY. 7 

by a singular advertisement upon the door, statiug, 
that " None but Members, or Strangers are admitted." 
The church contains a few handsome monuments, has a 
pretty specimen of stained glass in the eastern window, 
and is in excellent repair- The exterior has been so 
much altered from the original elevation, that it is a 
contuiued succession of contradictions to all the laws of 
architecture. 

The Roman Catholic Chapel stands in New-street, and 
beside it is the residence of the Titular Bishop. Shaded 
by a screen of arbutus, laurels, and jessamines, trained 
against the chapel-wall, is a very attractive inscription, 
upon a beautifully-designed, and well-executed monument. 
A marble urn, partly concealed by a funeral pall, rests 
upon a sarcophagus, whose paniiel bears the following 
beautiful and pathetic epitaph : — 

Entombed 

Near this Monument, lie the Remains 

Of the Right Reverend Gerald TAHAN, 

Doctor of the Sorbonne, and R. C. Bishop of Kerry ; 

His Doctrine and his Life reflected credit on each other. 

In him were blended 

The easy politeness of a Gentleman, 

With the purest principles of a Christian. 

Given to hospitality, gentle, sober, just, holy, continent, 

His charity was diffusive and exemplary. 

The Patron and Protector of Honourable Merit, 

He was learned without ostentation, 

And religious without intolerance. 

His affable manners and instructive conversation 

Charmed every ear, and vanquished every heart. 

To perpetuate the memory of so beloved a character. 

His mourning Friends have erected this Monument, 

A frail memorial of their veneration for his virtues, 

And a faint testimony of their grief for a misfortune, 

Alas ! indelibly engraved upon their hearts. 
He died the fourth day of July, 1797, aged 54 years. 

This very feeling compositiori was written by a clergy- 



8 TOWN OF KILLARNEY. 

man of the Established Church. There is a nun«ery 
also in this street, and a very numerous school of poor 
children in that by which the Cork mail enters. 

The Mansion of Lord Kenmare is hardly worth the 
attention of strangers : it is an old-fashioned fabric, in- 
differently furnished, placed on a flat, marshy plain, en- 
closed by full-grown trees, planted in the formal, taste- 
less, manner of the days of Charles II. By means of 
underwood, hedges, walls, &c., every prospect, how- 
ever trifling, of mountain or lake, is totally excluded from 
the front of the house, and at the rear is an extensive 
strait terrace that is protected by a deep fosse, and from 
which only a glimpse of the mountains can be caught. 

The hall of his lordship's house is flagged with very 
beautifid marble, raised on the lands of Cahernane, and 
at either end are busts of his Grace the Duke of Wel- 
Imgton, and Field Marshal Blucher. The baU-room is 
the largest apartment in the house ; the walls are hung 
with tapestry of rather inferior merit to that at Kilkenny 
Castle, or Tyrone House, in Dublin ; in this room is a 
table made of a single plank of yew, more than three 
feet broad. Over the chimney-piece is an admirable 
painting of Apollo crowning Handel. On the principal 
staircase stands an admirable bust of the late Henry 
Grattan, by Tunierelli, and another of George II. In 
the attic story is a private chapel for the celebration of 
divine service, accorduig to the rights of the Roman 
Catholic Church. 

The gardens of Kenmare House, which are separated 
from the lawn by the Mucruss road, are new, and in 
excellent order, but derive no advantage from their 
vicinity to the enchanting scenery of Lough Lein. His 
llordship has now (1823) been absent from Ireland about 



TOWN OF KILLARNEV. U 

eight years, and the management of his estate is intrusted 
to his agent, Mr. Galway, who resides in the town of 
Killarney. 

The first thing to be resolved upon, on arriving at the 
inn, is the route that is to be adopted for the following 
day. If it be the Gap of Dunloe, horses are to be provided, 
which are to be had here on much more reasonable terms 
than in Westmoreland; but if the intention be to visit the 
Lake, the cockswain who steers the boat, the bugle=man, 
gunner, &c., are to be sent for, and directed to be in 
readiness. And here certainly the most disgraceful cir- 
cumstance connected with a visit to the Lakes of BUlar- 
ney is discovered : the hire of a boat is a very extra- 
vagant sum in the first instance, but this the cockswain, 
or boatmen, cannot interfere with, the boats being the 
property of Lord Kenmare, from one of whose stewards 
they are procured; but, in addition, the boatmen and 
cockswain (five persons at least) are to be paid two 
shillings each for their labour, a bottle of whiskey a man^ 
with dinner for the entire party, including a bugle-man 
and fisherman. How different from the modest charges 
of Derwent and Windermere ! The boats are large, con- 
venient, and in excellent order, but without cushions. 

The greatest inconvenience, however, chargeable upon 
Killarney, is the distance of the town from the Lake. It 
was not possible to have fixed, in all the neighbourhood, 
upon a worse situation for the site of a village; the 
backs of the houses are turned towards the Lake, the view 
of which is totally excluded by Lord Kenmare's woods, 
and but for the supply yielded by a few wells, there would 
not be any fresh water in the village, although there are 
rivers at a short distance on every side. It is very un- 
pleasant to have a mile of uninteresting road to pass every 



10 TOWN OF KILLARNEY. 

monang before reaching Ross Bay, but this is actual 
pleasure compared with the annoyance of having the 
same road to return at night, after the fatigue of ten or 
twelve hours exercise, and probably drenched by the 
breakers, if the weather should be stormy. Here again 
the English Lakes have the advantage in accommodation 
for travellers, which he who has visited Coniston Head, 
the Ferry House, or Lowood upon "Windermere, will 
acknowledge. 

Had the town been built at the mouth of the River 
Flesk, and a handsome building erected for the accom- 
modation of strangers, there would not have been room 
for so much complaint as there is at present. Mr. Arthur 
Young, who visited KUlamey in 1776, writes on this 
point as follows : — " Before I quit it, I have one other 
observation to make, which is relative to the want of ac- 
commodation and extravagant expense of strangers re- 
siding at Killarney. I am surprised some one, with a 
good capital, does not procure a large well-built inn, to 
be erected on the immediate shore of the Lake, in an 
agreeable situation, at a distance from the town ; there 
are very few places where such an one would answer 
better; there ought to be numerous and good apart- 
ments; a large rendezvous-room for billiards, cards, 
music, dancing, &c., to which the company might re- 
sort when they chose it; an ordinary for those that liked 
dining in public ; boats of all sorts, nets for fishing, and 
as great a variety of amusements as could be collected, 
especially within doors ; for the climate being very rainy, 
travellers wait with great impatience in a dirty, common 
inn, which they would not do, if they were in the midst 
of such accommodations as they meet with at an English 
spa. Then strangers would not view it post-haste, and 



ROSS ISLAND. 11 

fly away the first moment to avoid dirt and imposition." 
Mr. Young did not thus write from personal ill-treatment, 
as the hospitality of Colonel Herbert prevented the 
necessity of subjecting himself to inconveniencies, which 
he regretted on the account of others. 

Let us now return to the visiter, for whom we are 
more sincerely interested; should his intention be to 
remain any length of time at Killarney, we hope he 
will find our Guide useful both as an index to the pic- 
turesque scenes, and as a record of ancient historical 
fects connected with the County of Desmwid. But, if 
the duration of his visit be limited to a short period, he 
will find, at the end of this little epitome, directions which 
will point out the most economic disposition of time, and 
the most comprehensive routes. 



LOWER LAKE. 

Which is the most considerable of those in the Lower 
Lake, containing about eighty plantation acres, is con- 
nected by a causeway and bridge with the main land; in. 
summer, the morass, separating the Island from the conti- 
nent, is completely dry; but in winter, Ross becomes again 
perfectly insulated. On this Island, or rather Peninsula, 
stands Ross Castle, which held out so obstinately under 
Lord Muskery, in 1652, against the English, commanded 
by General Ludlow. Upon the 26th of July in that year, 
at Knockniclachy, in the county of Cork, a battle was 
fought betweeu Lord Muskery, at the head of the Irish, 
and the Lord Broghil, commander of the English forces. 



12 ROSS ISLAND. 

in which the former were defeated with great slaughter, 
and Colonel Mac-Gillicuddy, a native of Kerry, and 
greatly beloved by the Irish, slain. Upon this defeat, 
Lord Muskery withdrew to Ross Castle, whither he 
was followed by General Ludlow, with a body of 4,000 
foot and 200 horse.* This experienced officer and upright 
statesman thus describes the siege of Ross Castle: — 
" In this expedition I was accompanied by the Lord 
" BroghU, and Sir Hardress Waller f, Major-general of 
'* the foot. Being arrived at this place, I was informed 
'' that the enemy received continual suppUes from those 
" parts that lay on the other side, and w^ere covered with 
" woods and mountains ; whereupon I sent a party of 
" two thousand foot to clear those woods, and to find out 
'' some convenient place for erecting a fort, if there 
" should be occasion. These forces met with some 
" opposition ; but at last they routed the enemy, killing 
*' some, and taking others prisoners : the rest saved 
" themselves by their good footmanship. Whilst this 
" was doing, I employed that part of the army which 
" was with me in fortifying a neck of land, where I 
" designed to leave a party to keep in the Irish on this 
'' side, that I might be at liberty, with the greatest part 
" of the horse and foot, to look after the enemy abroad, 
" and to receive and convoy such boats and other things 
" necessary as the commissioners sent us by sea. When 
" we had received our boats, each of which was capable 
" of containing one hundred and twenty men, I ordered 
" one of them to be rowed about the water, in order to 
" find out the most convenient place for landing upon the 



• Ludlow's Memoirs, VoL 1. p. 4)5. 
t One of the Judges of King Charles 1st. 



ROfS ISLAND. 15? 

" enemy ; which thoy perceiving, thought fit, by a 
*' timdy submission, to prevent the danger that 
" threatened them ; and having expressed their desires 
*' to that pmiiose, commissioners were appointed on both 
" parts to treat." 

The garrison of Ross Castle was. gteatly intimidated 
and urged to a surrender by the appearance of an armed 
vessel floating on Lough Lein ; for there was a prophecy 
amongst the inhabitants, that the Castle would not be 
taken imtil a vessel of war was seen to svnm upon the 
Lake. The influence of forebodings on the ignorant 
mind, in the hour of danger, has long been known and 
practised : the noble Brutus was not above the terrors of 
a midnight apparition at Philippi; and Shakspeare, who 
imderstood human nature perfectly, bestows upon his 
Caledonian hero not only a charmed life, but renders him 
invincible till " Bimam's wood should come to Dunsi- 
nane.'' The fact is, that nothing would have been more 
improbable than that a ship of war should ever have 
appeared upon the Lake of Killarney, and, had it not 
been for the unerring energy of Ludlow in the discharge 
of his trust, the long boats sent by the parliament ta 
Castlemain, had never been hauled up shallow streams, 
and carried over rugged tracts of land. 

After one fortnight's debate, says Ludlow, articles 
were agreed upon, by which it was settled that the 
estates of the Irish should be at the mercy of the par- 
liament; that no promise was given relative to the 
exercise of their religion ; and that exceptions should be 
made in the case of those who had murdered any of the 
English ; besides other articles, the same as were granted 
in the treaty of Leiuster; for the performance of all 
which. Sir Daniel O'Bryan and Lord Muskery's son 
c 



14 ROSS ISLAND. 

were delivered up, as hostages, to Ludlow: The surren- 
der of this castle terminated hostilities in Munster, and 
induced about five thousand of the Irish to lay down 
their arms. The conditions of the treaty of Ross Castle 
were accurately fulfilled by parliament, by which Lord 
Broghil was granted £.1000 yearly, out of the estates of 
Lord Muskery. 

The castle, which was built by the family of O'Do- 
noghoe-Ross, * is now an important ruin, standing 
upon a rock: it consists of a lofty, square building, with 
embattled parapets, formerly enclosed by a curtain wall, 
having round flankers at each corner, the ruins of which 
are yet visible. The interior possesses some extremely- 
well-proportioned apartments, and from the battlements 
may be had a most extensive panoramic view of Man- 
gerton, Turk, Glena, and all the surrounding scenery. 
A small building has been erected against one of the 
side walls of the castle, for the accommodation of an 
officer and company of men, which does not harmonize 
very well with the general character of the scene, and is 
particularly hurtful to the eye in looking from Inisfallen 
towards Mangerton. There is a governor also on the 
establishment of Ross Castle ; and a garrison was kept 
here in IfiQO, in the wars between WiUiam and James. 
(See Articles of Limerick.) 

The Island of Ross is of considerable extent, and 
though the woods were cut down in 1803, they have 
sprung up again sufficiently high to upbraid their destroyer 
and delight the admirer of the beauties of Nature. On 
Ross Island are to be found great varieties of trees and 
plants, oaks, yews, &c. Amongst the plants are the spleen- 



' So called to distinguish them from that of O'Donoghoe-More. 




llU'ii m-'AMU 



ROSS ISLAND, 15 

wort, the true-love or one beriy, which the peasantry 
make use of as an excellent alexiphanuic in malignant 
fevers; the tutsan or park-leaves, which is supposed to 
possess vulnerary and balsamic powers ; the raspberry- 
tree ; the common mother-thyme ; the service-tree, &c. 
Besides the beauty which Nature has so bountiftilly 
scattered over the surface of this Island, she has buried 
immense treasures in its bosom. Here lead and copper 
are to be had in great abundance, and though the work- 
ing of the mines is discontinued, yet it is rather for want 
of capital in the proprietors, than from a deficiency of 
ore. These mines were worked at a very early pei'iod, 
and some of the rude implements used for breaking down 
the ore, are to be found on the Island ; they are large 
oval stones, quite smooth, and round the centre of each is 
a mark, evidently caused by the fastening on of a con- 
venient handle ; they are called by the country people 
" Dane hammers," a belief still existing tliat they were 
formerly used by those hivaders. Besides the various 
ores, there is a vein of tolerably rich marble in the centre 
of the Island, used frequently by the peasantry for tomb- 
stones, which they seldom omit placuig over the remahis 
of their relatives. 

The shores of Ross Island are beautiftd and interesting 
in the extreme, being deeply indented and possessing end- 
less variety of commanding promontory, and retiring 
bay ; the rocks along its margin are worn into the most 
fanciiul shapes, for every group of which the helms-man 
is supplied with an appropriate appellation ; the most aptly 
denominated are those to be seen in passing from Ross 
Bay to Inisfallen, called the Books. 

Immediately opposite the little wharf, erected for con- 
venience of strangers embarking, is Lord Kenmare's boat- 



16 ROSS ISLAND. 

house, where a number of large boats, in excellent order, 
are sheltered and preserved for the public use ; the deep 
water, at that side of the bay, being the most desirable for 
lying in. Near the boat-house is a spot from whence the 
effect of a bugle, with the mouth directed to Ross Castle, 
infinitely exceeds any other echo to be met with about 
the Lakes ; the first echo is returned from the Castle, 
the second from the ruined Church of Aghadoe, the 
third from Mangerton, and afterwards - innumerable 
reverberations are distinguished, which appear Uke the 
faded brilliancy of an extremely multipUed reflexion, 
lost by distance and repetition. 

Nature seems to have been more playful in the produc- 
tion of echoes than in most other subjects of natural his- 
tory ; there is hardly any part of her works, for which 
some satisfactory theory cannot be adduced, save this. 
Lord Bacon has written several popular articles upon 
the reflexion of sounds, in his Centuries of Natural His- 
tory; and Matthew, Lord Bishop of Clonfert, has ren- 
dered greater service to this branch of Philosophy than 
any of his learned predecessors, (see Young on Sounds.) 
The Lakes of Kiilarney are particularly calculated to 
produce reflexions of sound, from the height of the 
mountains, and the expanse of water ; for water assists 
the delation of echo, as well as that of original sounds : if 
a few syllables be uttered in a soft tone over a well of great 
depth, the m ater returns an audible echo. Besides hav- 
ing the advantage of an expanse of water, with a tranquil 
surface, such as Lough Lein possesses in a mild summer's 
evening, the Castle is situated in the centre of an amphi- 
theatre of mountains, which is also the most advan- 
tageous for the production of echo, and the obstruction 
cf the sound by lulls at different distances, situated as it 



O'DONOHOE'S PRISON. 17 

were in the peripheries of a series of concentric circles, is 
consequently adapted to the creation of numerous re- 
flexions. For these reasons it is, that the return of 
sound from Ross Castle, at evening time, will be found 
more ciurious than in any other situation about the Lakes, 
contrary to the general belief, and of this the tourist can 
satisfy himself by experiment. Lord Bacon mentions 
(Cent iii. 249.) an instance of sixteen repetitions of the 
voice in the ruined church of Pont-Charenton, on the 
Seme, near Paris ; it was here that intelligent scholar 
discovered the inability of an echo to return the letter 
S, for having pronounced the word Satan, the echo re- 
plied va t'en, which in French signifies ' away !' from this 
extraordinary coincidence, the Parisians concluded that 
some guardian spuit prevented the walls of the sacred 
edifice from pronouncing the name " Satan." 



Leaving Ross Bay, the Lower Lake expands itself in 
glorious majesty; the promontories of Ross Island to 
the left of the fore-ground, O'Donohoe's Prison and Inis- 
fallen to the right, and immediately opposite, but at a 
distance of about two miles, Tomies and Glena moun- 
tains, rise in the most abrupt, fcold, precipitous man- 
ner from the surface of the waters, having their bases 
thickly wooded with oaks and hollies. O'Donohoe's 
Prison is a perpendicular rock, thirty feet above the 
general surface of the waters ; it does not appear to be 
covered by a coat of earth sufiicient to give nutriment to 
c 3 



18 O'DONOHOE'S PRISON. 

the smallest plant, yet upon its very summit, shooting 
from the fissures of the rock, the arbutus, ash and 
holly may be seen, adorned with the most luxuriant 
foliage. The tradition relative to O'Donohoe states him 
to have been a man of gigantic stature, warlike boldness, 
and great bodily strength : upon this rock the most obsti- 
nate of his enemies were doomed to perish by cold or 
famine, or were bound in fetters until they acknowledged 
submission to his will. His native historians relate, that 
being pursued by a number of enemies, upon one occa- 
sion, his charger, in attempting to cross a morass, sunk 
below the saddle bow, upon which the Herculean rider 
dismounted, and, placing a stone under each of his 
feet, pulled his gallant steed completely out by the 
ears. The shade of O'Donohoe,* say his traditionary 
biographers^ still haunts the scenes of his former 
greatness, and is seen moving on the surface of the 
waters at particular periods ; the memory of his snow- 
white steed is perpetuated by a rock, not unlike a 
horse drinking, near the shores of Mucruss, which pre- 
serves the name of O'Donohoe's horse. The sole surviv- 
ing heir of this distinguished family is a minor, at present 
educating at a public semmary ; his mother, who resides 
in the village of Kjllarney, is universally distinguished by 
the appellation of " The Madam," as a mark of respect 
to the matron of the family. 

To the north of O'Donohoe's Prison are Herron and 
Lamb Islands, and to the west. Brown or Rabbit Island : 
this last is only remarkable for its quarries of limestone, 
which are worked for the purposes of manuring land : 
latterly the trees have grown up so much on this 



For the legend of O'Donohoe, see Ihe Poem of Killaruey. 



INISFALLEN ISLAND. 10 

once desolate waste, that it considerably relieves the 
monotonous character of the northern extremity of the 
Lake. Not far from Ross Island, and between it and 
Inisfallen, is a little rock, crowned with rich foliage, which, 
from its dimhiutive appearance, is called Mouse Island. 



3EnfefaXten JE^lantr. 



More to the west is seen the Island of Inisfallen, a 
fertile and enchanting spot, containing eighteen acres of 
land, and richly clothed with wood. There are only 
two landing-places, although the shore is indented by 
numerous sinuosities, owing to the shallows on one side, 
and the bold rocks on the other : however, a convenient 
mole for disembarking has been erected at one of them, 
and Nature has provided accommodation for the visiter 
at the other. The view of Inisfallen, on the approach 
from any side, is of a totally different character from that 
of any other island on the lake ; it impresses the visiter 
with an idea of luxuriance, comfort, and tranquillity,- 
the surface of the glebe is spread with the brightest verdure, 
over which flourish, in rich foliage, the greatest possible 
varieties of trees and shrubs. Groups of lofty oaks fling 
then- arms over the sward beneath, and the intervals 
between them are generally occupied by various shrubs, 
so that only an occasional glimpse is permitted, through 
the woods, of the Lake and distant mountains ; occasional 
openings are left, where the richest imaginable pasture is 
unfolded, beautified by an undulating surface, and em- 
bosomed in sylvan scenery. In walking round the island. 



§•0 INISFALLEN ISLAND. 

the variety to be met with in so small a compass almost 
exceeds belief, and delights the admirer of the soft, the 
beautiful, and the gentle in Nature, to ecstasy. Here a 
forest scene, in whose centre stands the royal oakj a 
little farther, trees of less commanding, but not less beau- 
tiful aspect, present themselves. The loftiest trees 
enclose and shelter occasional lawns, affording the rich- 
est pasturage, while the smaller shrubs crowd so closely 
together, as to form an impenetrable barrier. In some 
places gleams of light pour through the thickening shade, 
and enliven the retirement of the interior ; and again, an 
opening to the Lake recals the idea of the watery bounda- 
ries, which here seclude us so completely from the scenes 
of the busy world, and induce us to reflect upon our remote- 
ness from the haunts of men. The very trees, in their 
rarity of species and form, appear to rival the surface of 
the island itself; a gradually ascending hill sinks into a 
pleasing vale, and this swelling and undulation of the sur- 
face, which art has never been able to effect, exists in 
such pleasing variety, that the imagination of the artist 
could not conceive, nor his pencil execute, more varied 
slopes, more gently falUng declivities, or more pleasing 
inequalities on the face of a landscape. 

Oak, ash, alder, holly, both bald and prickly, with the 
arbutus, grow spontaneously and luxuriantly in every 
part of the island ; the service (or Sorbus) tree, is also to 
be found here. — Smith (in his History of Kerry) seems to 
think that these trees were planted by the monks of Inis- 
fallen, contrary to the general opinion of the natives, 
who finding them to be the production of every other 
island equally, conclude they are the natural product of 
the soil. 
In one part of the island a holly is shown, the circum- 



INISFALLEN ISLAND. 21 

ference of whose stem measures fom'teen feet ; in another 
place, a large hawthorn has made its way completely 
through the centre of a monumental stone in the vicinity 
of the monastery. At the northern extremity of the 
island stands a crab-tree, in the trunk of which is a large 
oblong aperture, called the " eye of the needle ;" the 
guide, who points out this phenomenon, never fails to re- 
commend ladies to pass through it, in consequence of a 
certain charm which he assures them, this adventure will 
call into action. At the most remote extremity of the 
island, a projecting rock, overshadowed by an aged yew, 
is designated the "bed of honour:" this distinguished 
appellation is commemorative of a visit paid to this 
spot by his Grace the Duke of Rutland, when chief 
Governor of Ireland. There are now (1822,) six persons 
residing upon the island, who tend the cattle sent there 
to fatten ; four head of black cattle and forty sheep are 
grazing on the little lawns scattered amongst the woods, 
for the soil has long been celebrated for its exuberance. 
Bush, in his* Hibernian Curiosa, asserts that " the fat of a 
beast, in a few weeks feeding on the herbage of Inisfallen, 
will be converted into a species of very marrow, even too 
rich for the chandler's use, without a mixture of a grosser 
kind ;" and though this may be an exaggeration, it is 
generally stated by the inhabitants as a peculiarly rich 
pasturage. 

Not far from the harbour, where visiters generally 
land, are the ruins of an ancient monastery, founded by 



• The Hibernia Curiosa contains the first description of Killarney ever 
published ; and thougli there are numerous absurdities in it, yet there 
js also inuch truth and acuteness of observation : modern tourists have 
ilrawn largeljr upon this small work, without the candour to acknowledge 



22 INISFALLEN ISLAND. 

St. Finian Lobhar, (or the Leper,) the son of Alild, King 
of Munster, and disciple of St. Brendan, towards the 
close of the sixth century. In the year 640, St. DichuU 
was abbot, who, with his brothers Munissa and Nerhigis, 
were worshipped by the votaries at Inisfallen, and the 
island was then called Inis-Nessan or Inis-Mac-Nessan, 
i. e. the island of the sons of Nessan, from Nessan, the 
father of Dichull. St. Finian founded also the abbey of 
Ardfinnan, in the county of Tipperary, which takes its 
name from this saint, who was buried at Cluanmore 
Madoc, in Leinster, in an abbey also founded by him. 
He died on the second of February, though his festival is 
observed on the sixteenth of March.* The name Inis- 
Nessan has been rejected for its present very appropriate 
designation, InisMlen, the beautiful or healthy island, or 
Inisfaithlen, the island in the beautiful lake ; this lake is 
called by Colgan, Lough Lein, and the Lake of Desmond, 
indiscriminately. The latter name was borrowed from 
the Earls of Desmond, once petty Princes in Kerry, but 
whose greatness has long since gone by. 

After the Abbacy of Dichidl, a considerable hiatus 
occurs in the annals, and neither abbot nor occurrence is 
registered until 11 SO, if we except the name of one 
Abbot, Flannan; " at this period," says Archdall, "this 
Abbey being ever esteemed a paradise and a secure 
sanctuary, the treasure and most valuable effects of the 
whole country were deposited in the hands of its clergy : 
notwithstanding which, the Abbey was plundered by 
Maolduin, son of Daniel O'Donaghoe; many of the 
clergy were slain, and even in their cemetery, by the 
McCarthys : but God soon punished this act of impiety 

• See Colgan's Acta Sanctorum, March I8tb, St. Finian. 



INISFALLEN ISLAND. 23 

and sacrilege, by bringing many of its authors to an un- 
timely end." 

It is said, that a collection of bones was discovered 
beneath the threshold of the oratory hanging over the 
water, which Weld supposes to have been the bones of 
the clergy slain by the O'Donaghoes in 1180; but why 
not suppose them to be rather of more recent date, viz. 
1652, when the vicinity of Lough Lein was wasted by 
fire and sword, by Ludlow and the Parliament's army. 

The aiuials are continued uninterruptedly down to 
1320, but do not contain any matter of interest; 
M'Mugy and O'Haurehen were Abbots, immediately 
after the barbarous and inhuman murder of the Monks; 
and, " in the year 1197, in this monastery," say the 
annals, " on the nineteenth of December, died Gilla 
Patrick O'Huihair, in the 79th year of his age : he was 
Archdeacon of Faithlin, Superior of this convent, and the 
founder of many religious houses, to all of which he pre- 
sented books, vestments, and all other necessary furni- 
ture ; he was a celebrated poet, and was in the highest 
estimation for his chaste life, piety, wisdom, and universal 
charity." In the year 1204, the Abbot Lidga, or Nial, 
died of the plague ; and four years after, Gillacolman 
O'Riadan, a reverend Priest of Cloonvama, died here, 
'* where he passed," says the annalist, *' the evening of 
a life, chequered by misfortune, in penitence and prayer."* 



• This is the passage as Archdall has it, but the unpublished MSS. in 
Txinity College, Dublin, reads as follows :— " Gilla Colman O'Riadan, a 
reverend priest of the people of Cloonvama, died in Inisfailhlina happy 
death, after due devotion, penance and great tribulation, and was buried 
there." This apparently trifling diiference would not have been noticed, but 
that other parts of the annals, quoted in the Mona*ticon, are incorrect; 
which induces a supposition that Archdall didnotconsulttheMSS.hiinself, 
and that there may be passages of importance altogether neglected. The 



24 inIsfaLLen islaKC. 

In 1320, Dermod MTarthy, King of Desmond, who was 
murdered at Tralee, was interred here. The writer of 
the early part of the annals of Inisfallen, lived only to 
the year 1215, from which period to 1320 they are con- 
tinued by another historian. These annals contain a 
history of the world firom the creation to the year 430, 
after which they treat solely of Irish History : a perfect 
copy of them is preserved in the library of the Duke of 
Chandos, according to Bishop Nicholson, and there is an 
imperfect copy in the manuscript-room in the University 
of Dublin. The DubUn Society possess a copy of Sir 
James Wai-e's MSS. of these annals, translated by Walter 
Harris, the Irish antiquarian. 

By an inquisition taken the eighteenth of August, in 
the 37th of Elizabeth, the Monks of Inisfallen appeared 
to be possessed of 120 acres of arable land, with four 
town and three plough lands, together with extensive 
church patronage in the county of Limerick ; all which, 
besides the Abbey of Irrelagh (Mucruss) and its pos- 
sessions, were granted to Robert Collan, for ever, in fee 
farm by fealty only, in common soccage, at an annual 
rent of 72l.3s. sterling. 



nature of this work does not admit of antiquarian controversy, or 
display of ancient ecclesiastical knowledge, yet there is so great an 
hiatus in the annals of Inisfallen, as they appear in the Monasticon, that 
the opportunity of filling it up from the College MSS. which this little 
description attbrds, should not he neglected. The hiatus extends from 
1208 to 1320. In the College MSS. we find this passage :— " 1281, Murtagh 
O'Donagh, Archdeacon, died in Inisfaithlin, on Sunday, at night, in the 
feast called ' the division of the Apostles,' chief head of all the churches 
and clergy of the West of Ireland, and in wealth, generosity, hospitality, 
learning and devotion, the blessing of all Ireland be upon his soul ! God 
grant him eternal rewards through the intercession of the saints and 
angels in Heaven!", 



INISFALLEN ISLAND. 29 

The niins of the Abbey are tery hiconsiderable, and 
the workmanship of what still remains, extremely nide ; 
indeed there can be little hesitation in pronouncing the re- 
mainsof the monastery, now pointed out, not to have been 
part of the oi-iginal building-. There was a garden attached 
to the monastery, and a few plum-trees are shown close to 
the ruined walls, which, k is supposed, were planted by the 
religious inhabitants of the Island ; from one of the walls 
of thecloister a very picturesque yew shoots up. The only 
trace of the ancient edifices erected on this Island, which 
possesses the character of the architecture of those times, 
is an oratory, standing on a projecting cliff, at the south- 
eastern extremity of the island, on either side of which 
asre the coves where strangers land. The door-case is 
a Saxon arch, enriched vnth chevron ornament, one side 
of which is quite perfect, and very beautiful ; but the 
soft stone of which it was composed has yielded to the 
decay of a lapse of centuries. This little oratory has 
been fitted up, hj Lord Kenmare, as a banquetting- 
room : in one side is placed a large bay-window, from 
wWch a delightful view may be had of Ross Island, Mucruss 
shore, Mangerton, Turk, and Glena. Some have thought 
the oratory profaned by being repaired in its present 
manner ; but the truth is, that had it not been converted 
into its present purpose, it would, like the adjacent 
mouldering walls of the monastery, have now been nearly 
level with the ground. It is not upon this point the 
tourist can complain of the noble proprietor, for in this 
he has endeavoured to preserve some remnants of the 
ancient greatness of Inisfallen, and to accommodate the 
visiter also ; but it is greatly to be regretted, that the 
complaints of so many travellers of the neglected state of 
the walks and lawns of the island, should be so totally 



26 



O'SULLIVAN'S CASCADE. 



despised as they have hitherto been. The scenery of 
Inisfallen is of the soft, gentle, and civilized character, in 
w^hich a degree of neatness is necessary to beauty; there 
are scenes of v\rildness, subUmity, and command, where 
the very ruggedness of neglect and vsrant of cultivation 
compose the principal and noblest features of the viewr; 
but here the w^alk through the grass should be cleaned 
and strewn with gravel taken from the shore ; the briars 
and brambles, that are daily choking up the natural 
evergreens, should be removed, and sheep alone permitted 
to pasture on the lawns. 

Had the noble proprietor of Inisfallen witnessed the 
improvements of Mr. Curwen's island on Windermere, 
which does not possess a moiety of the natural beauty of 
Inisfallen, he would perceive what can be accomplished 
by a man of taste, in despite of Nature, and what 
an enchanting and terrestrial paradise could be made 
of his little island, with the most trifling degree of 
attention to neatness. Were this accomplished, we 
might conclude, that if there be a spot on earth where 
happiness coidd not refuse to be a guest, it is the Island 
of Inisfallen. 



Leaving the Island of Inisfallen, and sailing out into 
the broad expanse of waters, a grand mountain-view 
presents itself; Tomies and Glena directly opposite, the 
group of hills closing up the entrance to the Upper Lake 



O'SULLI VAN'S CASCADE. 27 

adjacent to them, and Turk and Mangerton to the south. 
Owing to the low,swampy grounds to the east and north 
of the Lower Lake, and the complete absence of moun- 
tains, the remaining prospect quite fails in exciting that 
interest which the visiter will expect to find created by 
every scene in the neighbourhood of Killarney. The 
rising grounds of Aghadoe afford a rest for the eye, but 
they are too insignificant to form a back-ground to the 
view. The mountains of Tralee are seen at a distance, 
but too remote to produce any effect, save at noon or 
evening, when a distant outline, harmonizes beautifully 
•with the character and colouring of the scene. Here then 
is the most extensive sheet of uninterrupted water amongst 
all the enchanting Lakes ; and here the only danger in 
boating on them is to be apprehended, chiefly originating 
in the difficulty of getting under shelter with sufficient ex- 
pedition, when a hurricane sweeps down the mountains' 
side, and rages over the surface of the waters ; whereas 
in any other part of the Lakes, Islands are so numerous 
that it is hardly possible to be many minutes sail direct 
from land. 

Steering towards Tomies Mountain, which is about one 
mile and a half from InisfaUen, the eye is delighted by 
the never-ending variety and change of sceneiy, momen- 
tarily occurring; at first, Tomies and Glena appear rising 
abruptly from the water, half clothed with hanging 
woods, and rearing their naked summits to the skies ; 
upon a nearer approach, they hide their rugged heads, 
and present a range of forest, nearly six miles in length, 
and apparently occupying the entire face of the moun- 
tains. Reaching the base of Tomies a little bay is 
perceived, where is a small quay of rude workmanship. 



28 O'SULLIVAN'S CASCADE. 

completely characteristic of the scene: on landing, a 
rugged pathway, along the bank of a foaming torrent, 
and winding through an almost inpenetrable forest, con- 
ducts to the famous waterfall, called O'SuUivan's Cascade. 
The roaring of the torrent, dashing with violent agitation 
from rock to rock, kindles expectation to the highest, 
and the waterfall retires so far into the deep bosom of a 
wooded glen, that, though aimost deafened by its roar, 
you do not catch even a glimpse, untU it bursts at once 
upon the view. 

The cascade consists of three distinct falls; the 
uppermost passing over a ridge of rock, falls about 
twenty feet perpendicularly into a natural basin beneath, 
then, making its way between two hanging rocks, the 
torrent hastens down a second precipice into a similar 
receptacle, from which second depository, concealed from 
the view, it rolls over into the lowest chamber of the 
fall. 

Beneath a projecting rock, overhanging the lowest 
basin, is a grotto with a seat rudely cut in the rock. 

Fronte sub adversa scopxilis pendentibus antrum 
vivoque sedilia saxo. Virg. Mneid, i. 170. 

From this little grotto the view of the Cascade is pecu- 
liarly beautiful and interesting : it appears a continued 
flight of three unequally elevated foamy stages. The 
recess is encompassed by rocks, and overshadowed by an 
arch of foliage, so thick as to interrupt the admission of 
light ; the height of the cascade is about seventy feet, 
and the body of water so considerable, that the noise 
soon becomes intolerable. Such a combination of cir- 
cumstances can hardly fail to produce the effect of gran- 
deur and sublimity in a very striking manner. 



O'SULLIVANS CASCADE. 20 

The stranger not un frequently sits down to rest within 
the grotto of O'Siillivan, to contemplate and reflect upon 
the beauties and the works of Nature, and unless his 
nerves be of considerable strength, he may chance to be 
somewhat startled by the sudden appearance of -visiters 
on each side of him; these are the inhabitants of the glens 
and valleys in the mountains' bosom, who, perceiving the 
boat making for the shore, hasten to greet the stranger in 
the rustic cave, and present him with the wild fruit of 
their happy vales. 

The appellation of " O' Sullivan" is bestowed upon this 
fall, from an illustrious family of the name, who were 
proprietors of the barony of Dmikerron, formerly called 
O'Sullivan's country, and were styled Princes by the Irish. 
Of tliis distinguished family there were two branches, the 
one caUed M'Fineen Duff, to whom the castle of Ardea 
belonged, the other O'Sullivan More, proprietors of 
Dunkerron Castle; from the latter this cascade is most 
probably named. 

Embarking at the rude, unfinished causeway, before 
mentioned, and coasting along the base of Tomies and 
Gleiia, the scene increases in picturesque effect with 
every effort of the rowers : the woods of Tomies are not 
so luxuriant as those of Glena, being interspersed with 
birch, while the oak and arbutus in the woods of Glena 
enrich the view with coloming of a deeper dye. 

In this voyage the deepest water is sailed over, at 
the bottom of which, the peasantry inhabiting the borders 
of the Lake assert, that a species of precious stone, called 
a carbuncle, is to be seen in clear weather. O'Flaherty 
mentions that pearls have been found in this Lake, 
" Et in €0 stagno margaritce mvltoB reperiuntur, qtias 
ponunt reges in auribus suis ;" latterly but few have been 



30 LOWER LAKE.— PEARLS. 

found in the Lake itself^ but several in the river Laune.* 
Irish pearls have been known and valued, according to 
Ware, for many centuries ; in 1094, Anslem, archbishop of 
Canterbury, was presented with a pearl of great value, 
by Gilbert, Bishop of Limerick. In the Blackwater river, 
between Cappoquin and Lismore, a species of muscle is 
constantly found, containing a kind of seed-pearl ; the 
country people make use of the sheUs as spoons. A 
muscle possessing excellent pearls is also found in the 
river Arigadeen, in the county of Cork : these fisheries 
were once of some value, but so many of the pearls found 
in the south of Ireland are of a dusky colour, and 
besides, they have been so successfully imitated in 
France, by Sieur Janin, that those of an inferior 
quality are not worth gathering. 

Amethysts have been fi'equently found in the county 
of Kerry ; the Earl of Shelbourne had some very valuable 
stones of this description gathered here ; and the Coun- 
tess of Kerry presented a necklace and ear-rings of 
amethysts, found near Kerry-Head, to Queen Caroline 
(Consort of George II.) 

In coasting along the bases of the majestic Tomies 
and Glena, towards the Upper Lake, several islands are 
passed, particularly Stag and Burnt Island, near Glena 
Point, under which a narrow channel is formed by an island 
called Darby's Garden. The cockswain generally informs 
visiters, that this island was so called from an angler of 
that name, who addressed Lord Kenmare, as he passed in 



• The similarity of proper names, in England and Ireland, has induced 
a strong belief of the identity of the original languages of both countries : 
^hus the Laune is the same as Lune, which runs by Lancaster, and is 
pronounced Lune, by the inhabitants of Killarney. Top. Hib, 



GLENA BAY AND COTTAGE. 31 

his yawl to the Upper Lake, and besought the commonage 
of this rock from his Lordship : but the stranger will find 
that much more trifling occurrences have been the occa- 
sions of naming the islands of KiUamey. 

Leaving Castle-Lough Bay, studded with islands, and 
Mucruss Promontory to the left, the usual course is under 
the woods of Glena ; perhaps there is scarcely any thing 
in the sublime, the horrible, the picturesque and beauti- 
ful, that is not illustrated in the bay of Glena: — the 
majestic Turk, the gloomy Mangerton, with a continued 
chain of dark and lofty mountains behind them ; then, the 
entrance to Turk Lake, and the channel to the upper, 
possessing beauty and variety ; with the bay of Glena, 
sheltered by a lofty hill, possessing the scenic character 
of both the others. The summit of Glena is bare, naked, 
bai'ren, wild, and rugged, while the base is clothed with 
a deep mass of unbroken wood, of rich and varied 
shades, almost dipping their foliage in the water. Op 
the western shore of Glena bay, stands a most singular 
phenomenon, thus described by Bush in his Hibernia 
Curiosa, " I have seen an oak, an ash, an hazel, a birch 
and a thorn, so incorporated into the trunk of an old 
lively holly, that they appeared to grow out of its very 
body, and to exist by feeding on its vitals. Bush, 145. 
Holmes, 126. 

In the bay of Glena will be found a most pleasing 
echo, from the impending mountains, which is much 
increased in strength and distmctness of articulation, by 
the auditor being stationed at a considerable interval 
from the origin of the sound. This may be readily 
accomplished, and to the best possible advantage, by a 
party, attended by two boats, having placed the bugleman 
ia one of them, m the best position for producing an echo^ 



32 GLENA COTTAGE. 

and then rowing away some distance. This echo, like 
all others, is much improved by the stillness of evening. 

In the bay of Glena is an excellent fishery of salmon, 
trout, and perch, but there are no pike in the Lake ; 
parties intending to dine at Glena Cottage are tolerably 
secure of being provided with a salmon, taken for the 
occasion, and drest in a very pecuhar manner. The 
salmon fishery is let for an annual sum, on condition 
that the persons taking it, supply the market of Killamey, 
at the rate of 2d. per pound. The cottage of Glena is 
situated at the base of the mountain of that name, 
sheltered by a hanging wood of oak, ash, hollj^, &c. 
and close to the margin of the lake. The most romantic 
disposition of mind cannot conceive, nor the most pictu- 
resque fancy sketch, a scene more beautiful, more ani- 
mating, or more captivating; the cottage in the wood, at 
a little distance, produces ideas of comfort, neatness, beauty 
and happiness, but upon a nearer approach, the visiter 
must prepare to see, in a state of extreme neglect, a 
residence capable of being made one of the most enchant- 
ing cottages in the universe. The peasant who resides 
here has a comfortable little hut behind the cottage, and 
receives every stranger with courtesy and good-nature ; 
and although the decorations of Glena Cottage are poor 
and miserable, yet many happy days have been spent 
beneath its roof, for its visiters are so enamoured of 
the natural beauties of the scene, that the embellish- 
ments of art are quite forgotten. 

Here the salmon, taken alive from the lake, are dressed 
in a most extraordinary mode, and which, though not 
prepossessing in appearance, will be found much so in 
reality. The salmon is split from head to tail, and cut 
into junks; these are pierced with skewers, made of 



GLENA COTTAGE. 33 

arbutus wood, stuck perpendicularly into a sod, and 
is thus roasted at a turf fire : the arbutus is supposed 
to impart a very peculiar flavour to the salmon, 
and the tourist should not condemn it without trial. 
In this cottage, in 1821, a remarkable instance occurred o' 
the cultivation of the classics among the peasantry in Kerry j 
the son of the cottager, who attended at table, was admit- 
ted and introduced as a poor scholar; some of the party 
m the cottage addressed him in Latin, upon which he, at 
first, apologized for not replying in the same language, 
as he had not read beyond Virgil, but being pressed 
closely, he shortly proved himself a worthy adversary* 
and concluded this exhibition by capping verses with 
greater ease and facility than any person present 

There is a tradition prevalent in this neighbourhood, of 
a party of Oxford lads, who, coming to visit the Lakes, 
were heard to express a wish of meeting some of the 
gentry of Kerry, to hazard a game of capping verses, or 
other classical feats with them ; a few young gentlemen 
of Killamey, who happened to be present, suggested to 
them the possibility of being worsted in the contest, for 
in that county, the very peasants spoke Latin ; the Oxo- 
nians were not to be deterred, and setting out in their 
cabriolet next morning, arrived at a ford, where some 
young women were employed beetling clothes, upon 
whom they jocularly lavished some lines of Vkgil, when, 
" mirabile dictu," the washerwomen replied in the 
same language. The Oxonians gazed on each other 
with surprise and dismay, and hurried along in their 
cabriolet as fast as their mountain shelty could move this 
unusual conveyance, without once reflecting upon the pos- 
sibility of deception : these washerwomen being no othej: 



34 STAG-HUNTING. 

than their Irish companions of the preceding evening, in 
female habits. The peasantry, of both sexes, are also 
extremely fond of dancing, and cultivate this accom- 
plishment with extreme industry. 

Before we conduct the reader beyond the confines of 
Glena Bay, the joys of a stag-hunt should be described. 
Amongst the various phenomena, beauties, amusements, 
&c. to be witnessed or enjoyed at the Lakes of Killar- 
ney, tourists seem to estimate the stag-hunt as the 
most interesting of all. The joys of the chase were 
always attractive to the ancient Irish, and Bede calls 
Ireland, an Island famous for stag-hunting; but the 
sport thus alluded to was of a much more manly, ar- 
duous, and warlike character, than the effeminate task of 
participating in the prepared pageantry of a Killamey 
stag-hunt. Few visiters have the good fortune to be pre- 
sent at these amusing exploits, although any person who 
pleases to encounter the expense attendant upon the pre- 
parations for the hunt, need not be apprehensive of being 
refused permission to indulge himself and his friends with 
the agreeable spectacle. 

After leave is granted, a considerable number of per- 
sons are employed to conduct the hounds to the ap- 
pointed rendezvous, from whence they are liberated at an 
appointed time ; some beat the wood and rouse the stag 
from his retreat in the thicket, while others ascend the 
heights to prevent his escaping to the mountain's top ; 
although this is not much to be feared, as deer seldom 
run against a hill. In the mean time the spectators assemble 
in boats upon the Lake, and row backwards and forwards, 
directed by the echoes of the hunters' horns, and the bay- 
ing of the hounds ; during the chase amongst the woods the 



STAG-HUNTING. 35 

pursuers submit to much fatigue, without enjoying equal 
gratification, as the closeness of the trees seldom gives 
them an opportunity of seeing the stag pursued by the 
dogs. Meanwhile the patience of the aquatic hunter is 
put to the test, being frequently obliged to remain several 
hours on the water, in expectation of ultimately seeing 
the poor tired creature leap into the deep, and seek for 
shelter in a distant island : the number and experience 
of the hunters seldom fail to conclude the chase in the 
expected manner, and the stag leaping into the Lake, and 
trying to make the opposite shore, is surrounded by the 
sportsmen in boats, and borne triumphantly to land.* 

The species of deer, inhabiting the woods of Killarney, 
is called the stag or red deer ; it was introduced into 
England from France, but appears to be an old inhabi- 
tant of this country : and, although the red deer con- 
tinue wild in the Highlands of Scotland, yet those in the 
woods about Lough Lein are the only remaining part of 
the great herds that were to be found in the forests 
which once covered the face of this country ; the few 
remaimng in England are confined to the moors that 
border on Cornwall and Devonshire. Various animals 
are much pleased by harmonious tones, but none so com- 
pletely overcoule by their influence as the large stag, or 
red deer, as a proof of which take the following inte- 
resting anecdote from Playford's History of Music :— " As 
I travelled, some years smce, near Royston, met a herd 
of stags, about twenty, on the road, following a bag- 



• It would not appear to the reader that this species of stag-hunt is as 
laborious or dangerous as that spoken of by the venerable Bede, but the 
aatiior of the Hibernia Curiosa, with his usual extravagant pourtraying, 
says, " there is one imminent danger that awaits the hunter, which is, 
that he may forget where he is, and jump out of the boat." 



36 STAG-HUNTING. 

pipe and violin, which, while the music played, they went 
forward, when it ceased they all stood still; and in this 
manner they were brought out of Yorkshire to Hampton 
Court." It may be observed, that as the state of the soil 
is altered, either by cultivation or the course of Nature, 
the creatures that enjoyed its bounty, are exchanged or 
annihilated. The red deer, the inhabitant of the forest, 
disappears according as its places of shelter are removed 
by the agricultural innovations of man ; and the fallow 
deer is substituted, as ministering more gorgeously to his 
luxurious appetites. 

The wolf, once a well-known and dreaded inhabitant of 
Ireland, has been totally extu-pated : first his retreats were 
destroyed, next a reward offered for his head, and the last 
ever taken in this kingdom, was caught in these woods. 
Edgar was so resolved upon destroying this hateful species 
of animal, that he commuted the punishments for certain 
crimes, upon the production of a certain number of wolves* 
tongues. This determined conduct soon cleared England 
of these blood-thirsty animals, while Ireland still continued 
to be oppressed and inconvenienced by their depredations ; 
and even so late as 1710, a presentment was laid before 
the Grand Jury of the County of Cork, for the destroying 
of wolves. The Welch were also relieved from this natural 
grievance, by the wisdom of some of their early legis- 
lators ; Camden informs us, that certain lands were held 
on the express condition, that the tenant should clear 
them of wolves; and it is an authenticated fact, that 
the annual tribute of gold and silver, levied upon Wales, 
was not unfrequently commuted for one of wolves' heads 
and carcasses. 

Another animal peculiar to Ireland, and which 
abounded in this country, is the dog called by natural- 



MOOSK DERR. 37 

lists " tlie Irish greyhound," or wolf dog. Some of 
these noble animals, Goldsmith affirms he saw arrived 
at a height of four feet; and Bewick assures us it 
is an over-match for the mastiff or bull-dog. It re^ 
sembles a common greyhound in form, but is stronger 
made, and was used formerly to clear the countvy of 
wolves ; but its services being no longer necessary, the 
race became nearly extinct, along with its old and inve^ 
terate enemy ; for some years since, but eight Irish 
greyhounds were in existence, the property of the Earl 
of Altamont ; and, at this day, it is supposed two remain, 
which are in the possession of a gentleman in Dublin; but 
even this is erroneous, for, although these dogs greatly re- 
semble the Canis Graius Hibernicus, thej are really of a 
Danish breed. 

It would be almost unjustifiable to overlook this op- 
portunity of introducing a few observations upon an 
animal of enormous size, once also an inhabitant of this 
island, but of which, except the horns and bones found 
in the bogs in various parts of the kingdom, nothing 
remains to demonstrate its existence : this is the Moose 
Deer, of which the fossil horns and teeth have been dug 
up in several places. This animal has neither been per- 
fectly classified, nor scarcely even treated of by any 
writer, the natural history of Ireland having been almost 
totally neglected. 

Naturalists are not agreed to what precise class the 
animal, whose horns are dug up in Ireland, belongs. 
The conclusion to be drawn from the majority of opinions 
is, that they must have been those of the Moose Deer, 
not the elk. The horns; are of different lengths, varying^ 
in the chord of the antlers, from twelve to fourteen feet, 
and the sum of the lengths of the antlers and os froittis, 



38 MOOSE DEER. 

from fifteen to eighteen. Such an enormous weight must 
have required an animal of extraordinary strength and 
size to support it; and from thisj as well as from the 
skeleton also dug up, it has been concluded, that the 
stately creature, who once bore such stupendous antlers 
on its head, must have been upwards of twelve feet 
high. The horns found, branch very differently from 
those of the elk ; they are palmated at the upper extre- 
mity, and possess projections both on the inferior and 
superior processes. The extinction of this species of 
animal cannot, probably, be satisfactorily explained; 
but the following account may, perhaps, lead the reader 
to happier explanations of the circumstance: — In Lap- 
land, where this animal, or certainly one approaching 
indefinitely near to this species, exists, a murrain, or pesti- 
lential disorder, frequently destroys the whole race in a 
season; yet from the connection or continuity of land, the 
loss is supplied by a body of migrators from a neighbouring 
country ; supposing, therefore, a pestilence to have raged in 
this island, so as to cut off the remaining part of a species, , 
alread;' thinned by the sport of the huntsman, the discon- 
tinuity of land would prevent the possibility of a fresh 
supply, and thus the species would become extinct in this 
country for ever, and its existence ascertained, in after 
ages, only by the fossil horns, which may be called the 
medals of creation. 

This conjecture is somewhat strengthened by the pir- 
cumstance of several heads and antlers being discovered 
in the same spot, particularly those found in Mr. Os- 
borne's orchard, at Dardistown, in the county of Meath, 
which were all close together, and, like all others, found 
deposited in a bed of marl. 

A very large pair of antlers, found in the county of 



TURK LAKE. 3') 

Clare, by IVIr. Vandeleur, was presented by his Grace the 
Duke of Ormond to King Charles II, and suspended in 
the horn-gallery at Hampton Court. Antlers of the same 
description were preserved in Portumna Castle, the seat 
of Earl Clanrickard ; at Tui-vey, the seat of Lord Trim- 
lestown ; at Stack Allen, the seat of Lord Boyne, in the 
county of IMeath ; and at other places. 

Though antlers of considerable dimensions have been 
dug up in other parts of Europe, yet they do not appear 
to be precisely the same, nor in such numbers as those 
found in Ireland. Fossil horns were found by Mr. 
Knovfles, near North Dreighton, in Yorkshire, and others 
in the canal of Ourcq, near to Seviau, in the Forest of 
Bondi ; but the induction from so few specimens might 
be very fallacious. 

It is said that this animal is to be met with in Canada, 
and is particularly plentiful amongst the Algolquin 
nation, from whose language the name Musu is bor- 
rowed : they hunt them frequently with their canoes on 
the Lake, in a manner somewhat analagous to the Killarney 
stag-hunt*; and here it may be remarked, that the pro- 
ductions of Ireland, particularly those of the western coast, 
greatly resemble those of the Transatlantic worldf. 



Leaving Glena Cottage and Bay, the Islands of Dinis 
and Brickeen invite our attention ; these Islands separate 
Turk from tlie Lower Lake, and form narrow passages, or 



• See Jocelyn's New England Rarities, and Baron Le.Hontan's Voyage 
t Phil. Trans. No. 368. 



40 * TURK LAKE. 

canals, by which alone Turk Lake can be entered. 
There are passages on both sides of Dims Island^ and a 
third under Brickeen bridge. This bridge unites the ex- 
tremity of the promontory of JMucruss with Brickeen 
Island ; it .consists of one gothic arch, whose altitude is 
seventeen feet, and span twenty-seven, and was built by 
the late Colonel Herbert. The most deskable entrance 
is by the Glena side of Dinis Island, which, though more 
circuitous to navigate, is much the most beautiful, and of 
the most novel character. The passage is like a river en- 
closed by rich and verdant banks, crowned with the most 
luxuriant groves of various trees, close to the water's 
edge : it is a sylvan and aquatic scene of the most delicate 
and pleasing character, without any mixture whatever of 
the sublime or grand, but confined to the beautiful solely, 
and of such beauty as the eye loves to dwell upon. 

After being enclosed for some short time in this enchant- 
ing and retired scene, Turk Lake suddenly appears, through 
a narrow vista, and produces a very singular effect by the 
extreme abruptness with which the view of the expanse of 
water breaks in upon you. The visiter should land, how- 
ever, on the banks of the wooded canal, upon Dinis 
Island, and wander through the lawns and groves 
of flowing arbutus, which enrich and beautify this little 
Eden. The taste of the Colonel was too chaste, and his 
judgment too discerning, to neglect this happy little spot, 
so much adorned by Nature ; and, having cut walks 
through the woods, he erected a large and comfortable 
cottage on a sloping lawn, looking towards Mangerton, 
and Turk Cottage. Here parties frequently dine, and are 
very comfortably accommodated, and treated with that 
poHteness which is characteristic of the inhabitants of 
this neighbourhood. The banqueting-room commandt 



TURK LAKE. 41 

a view of the Lake from one extremity to the other, with 
Turk and IMangerton Mountains, and the Cottage of 
Turk, with its improved pleasiu-e-grounds. Here also the 
visiter will have his salmon, which is perhaps some of the 
finest in the south of Ireland,dressed upon arbutus skewers, 
as at Glena. While the passengers are engaged in wander- 
ing over the Island, or refreshing within the cottage, the 
boat is generally rowed to the front of the cottage in Turk 
Lake, where it awaits at tlie foot of the gently sloping 
bank. Coasting along the south-side of the Lake, Turk 
Moimtain appears particularly sublime, having acquired, 
by proximity, that apparent height which its neighbour 
Mangerton denies it at a greater distance. The precipitous 
brow of Turk appears thickly wooded to a considerable 
height, and down to the very water ; the Lake itself, 
which midtiplies its forests, at the same time receives a 
dark and gloomy colouring from the reflection of the im- 
pending height. The opposite shore fonns a striking con- 
trast to tliis : there the pemnsula of Mucruss is extended, 
elevated but a little above the Lake, and consisting of a bed 
of mouldering and excavated rocks, thickly covered with 
wood. It has been for some time in contemplation to 
carry the new line of road from Kenmare to Killamey, 
across the fi-ont of Turk Mountain, and immediately over 
the Lake; but this has been opposed, under the impression 
that it would interrupt the beauty, retirement, and tran- 
quillity of the scene : although this appears very ques- 
tionable. The new road in the vale of Avoca is an 
improvement to the beauty of the scenery ; and how has 
the new line in North "Wales interrupted the sublimity . 
of that beautifril region ? 

At the remote or eastern extremity of the Lake, stands 
Turk Cottage, a private retreat of Mr. Herbert ; it con- 
E 3 



42 TURK LAKE. 

tains several smaK, neat apartments, with a library of 
miscellaneous books. The pleasure-grounds around are 
highly improved, and carefully attended to. 

Behind the cottage, at the distance of about a furlong, 
in a chasm between Turk and Mangerton Mountains, is 
Turk Cascade, a fall of about sixty feet, which, in 
jrainy seasons, exhibits one continued sheet of foam, 
■fi-am the stage whence it shoots to the natural basin 
below,: it is supplied from a small lake, formed in the 
hoUow of the summit of Mangerton, called the Devil's 
Punch Bowl, and the rivulet is thence denominated 
^' The Devil's Stream." This cataract, after falling into 
a deep and gloomy reservoir below, hurries impetu- 
ously along the bottom of 3. rocky glen, and passing 
beneath a small bridge of .Gothic arches, mingles its 
waters with those of the lake. One side of the glen is 
completely perpendicular, and richly clothed with larch 
and &, planted by Colonel Herbert. Owing to the extreme 
perpendicularity of the sides of the glen, immediately 
near the waterfall, the men employed in planting the firs, 
were obliged to be lowered by ropes from the top, carry- 
ing the young trees with them, and seeking for a bed of 
earth of sufficient depth to protect their roots ; and in 
this tedious, expensive, and dangerous manner, Turk 
Cascade has been so improved by human aid, that the 
majority of strangers would prefer it to O'Sullivan's 
Cascade on the Lower Lake, or Derry-Cunnihy Water- 
feU on the Upper. 

There is a bridle road leading from Turk Cottage to 
Mucruss House and Abbey, which is not very interest- 
ing, being overhung by the bleak brow of Mangerton ; 
and visiters have an infinite advantage by viewing the 
jsurrounding scenery from the lake. Rowing round the 



PASSAGE TO THE UPPER LAKE. 43 

eastern extremity, there is an uninterrupted prospect of 
the whole of Turk Lake, which is about two miles long, 
and one broad ; then sailing by a Uttle embayment, in 
the very centre of which is a small island, the course is 
along the rugged shores of Mucruss Peninsula. Devil's 
Island and Bay particularly demand notice. The Island 
is a mass of rock of considerable elevation, having some 
shrubs upon its summit, and appears to have been 
thrown off from the shore of Mucruss by some convulsive 
shock of nature. 

Coasting along the northern shore of Turk Lake, 
pass Brickeen Bridge, and return to the cottage on 
Dhiis Island. A walk round this httle richly-wooded 
spot will amply compensate the tourist, by the endless 
variety of sceneiy presented at every change of place or 
position, and the foliage on this island is the most 
luxuriant imaginable. 



pa^gage to tjbe Uppr Ealtt. 

Entering the river again, the navigation against the 
current is found very difficult ; and though the visiter is 
completely enraptured by the pleasing character of the 
scenery to be met with in this watery defile connecting 
the Lakes, the boatmen are occupied in a very different 
manner, being obliged to put forth all their energies to 
overcome the violence of the stream. In the most 
rapid part of the river, not far from Old Weir Bridge, 
an eddy is shown, usually called O'SulHvan's Punch 
Bowl ; it is extremely like those whirlpools near Bangor 



44 PASSAGE TO THE 

Ferry, called the S willies. The company generally dis- 
embark, and walk along the banks, while the boatmen 
draw up the boat by a rope attached to the prow. The 
interest of the scene is rather increased by this little in- 
terruption, and the difficulty of pushing the boat 
through one of the arches of Old Weir Bridge, heightens 
it still farther. The bridge, which consists of two 
arches of equal dimensions, is thrown across the stream 
where there is a rapid of great violence ; and in return- 
ing from the Upper Lake, it is necessary to vmdergo the 
ceremony of shooting the arch, which persons of 
weak nerves should not attempt; for any confusion 
amongst the passengers, would destroy the equilibrium of 
the boat, and most probably cause it to strike against a 
rock. But although accidents might occur, it is also 
certain that scai'cely any serious injury has ever been 
sustained in passing either up or down the current. 

Pursuing the voyage along this natural and serpentine 
canal, various small islands and grotesque rocks are 
pointed out. Miss Plummer's Island is soon passed, 
and shortly after a large mass of rock, called the Man of 
War, presents itself; it is exceedingly like the work of 
art, to which the cockswain compares it, and the analogy 
is farther preserved by a large yew upon its summit, 
whose stem and branches are the representatives of the 
mast and sails. 

The Eagle's Nest is the next important object in the 
passage. It is placed in a hanging crag, near the sum- 
mit of an almost perpendicular rock of a pyramidal form, 
and twelve or thirteen hundred feet in height. When 
viewed from a distance, this much-celebrated rock, so 
frequently the subject of the painter and the poet, ap- 
pears quite contemptible, from the superior height of 



UPPER LAKE. 45 

the adjacent mountains ; but the approach to its base, 
by the river, is .picturesque and sublime in the highest 
degree, since the river runs directly to its foot, and there 
tunis ofF abruptly, so that the rock is seen from its base 
to the summit, without inteiTuption ; and the projecting 
masses of huge broken fragments in the centre, tend to 
complete the magnificence of the object. The base is 
covered with wood, and a few shrubs appear scattered 
over the face of the rock up to the very apex of the 
pyramid. 

It is firom this sublime and stupendous rock the sound 
is returned in so miraculous a manner, that it is con- 
sidered one of the most singular phenomena in existence. 
A small hillock on the opposite side of the river, usually 
called the " Station for Audience," is used as the resting 
place of a paterara, which is carried in the boat from 
Killarney : the gunner is placed on one side of the hillock, 
and the auditor on the other, and upon the discharge of 
the piece, a roaring is heard in the bosom of the opposite 
mountain, like a peal of thunder, or the discharge of a 
train of artillery, and this echo is multiplied a number 
of times, after which it gradually fades away, like the 
rolling of distant thunder.* The exact residence of the 
eagle may be distinguished by a black mark near the 
vertex of the rock, and the noble inhabitant is frequently 
seen soaring above the heads of passengers on the river, 
and directuig their admiring gaze towards his inaccessible 
retreat. The sound of a musical instrument produces 
reverberations of quite a different character from that of 
the musket or small cannon. The only instrument that 



' See echoes more minutely treated of p. 16^ 



4G PASSAGE TO THE 

can be procured at Killarney is a bugle, which is pecu- 
liarly appropriate for the production of echoes, and in 
1821, one of the best performers in Great Britain, Spa- 
lane, afibrded the visiters to Lough Lein an opportunity 
of gratifying their curiosity by listening, amid the rude 
recesses of the mountains, to the most ecstatic tones, 
and the most dulcet harmony, apparently produced by 
preternatural influence. 

Leaving the Eagle's Nest, rocks and islands succeed 
in endless variety of form. Holly Island, the Four 
Friends, &c. and the mountain denominated Newfound- 
land, begin nov/ to appear southward. The river 
meanders even more than at its northern entrance, and, 
at the precise opening to the Upper Lake, narrows so 
much, that there appears no egress from the last basin of 
the river. 

In sailing along the Channel of Communication be- 
tween the Lakes, many sublime mountain vieM^s may be 
had, particularly at the northern extremity of the Man- 
of-War Rock, looking towards Lord Brandon's Tower, 
and again near the rocks called the Cannon and Balls. 

The passage is generally considered to be about three 
miles in length, and in point of beauty, extent, and situa- 
tion, is qviite unique, in mountahi scenery, neither Wales, 
Wicklow, nor the English Lakes, possessing any thing of 
a similar description. It is bounded on the north-west by 
Glena and the Long Range Mountains, and on the 
sovith-east by the Drooping Mountain (Cromiglaun), 
and the base of Turk. In the Summer season the rocks 
enclosing the channel of the rivex are much disfigured by 
the falling of the vi^aters ; being of a cellular nature, the 
soft slime and mud carried down by the wintry torrents, 
are deposited in the inequalities of the rocky substance ; 



__-:SJ 



UPPER LAKE. 47 

and on the falling of the surface of the lakes in dry wea- 
ther, a dark water-mark remains, extremely unpleasant 
to the eye. 

The entrance into the Upper Lake is contracted into 
a narrow passage, of about thirty feet in breadth, usually 
called Coleman's Leap, from a tradition that a person of 
this name once leaped across the chasm ; and on the west 
side may be seen the impression of the adventurer's feet 
in the solid rock.* The contraction in this place is occa- 
sioned by a peninsula, called Coleman's Eye, Avliich 
strikingly represents the form of the human eye, when 
viewed upon a map. 

Here the boatmen having given several violent pulls 
of the oars, are compelled to ship them altogether, 
trusting to the impulse given by their efforts for being 
able to pass the gap, for it is not of sufl&cient breadth to 
permit the oars to ply. Coleman's Leap once passed, 
you are upon the Upper Lake. 



* Impressions of feet in the solid rock ate not nncommon " lusus 
naturae.'" About five miles from the head of Kenmare River, in the 
heart of the mountains, and near a small brook, is a rock, usually called 
by an Irish name which signifies " The Fairy Rock." On this are to be 
6een the impressions of several human feet, some naked, others vidth 
^boes on, and those of all sizes from infancy to manhood. From the 
appellation bestowed upon the Fairy Rock, it is plain the peasant has 
attributed this effect to preternatural causes, but the naturalist removes 
the difficulty, by supposing that this and other rocks may once have been. 
in a fluid or soft state, and consequently susceptible of impressions, and 
become petrified in the course of time, as we know many kinds of clay 
do. This hypothesis might also explain the phenomenon of the impres- 
sions of two large feet on the summit of Adam's Peak, in the Island of 
Ceylon, as well as those mentioned by Dr. Behrens in his Natural His- 
tory ; one, the impression of a young woman's foot, who was supposed 
to have been escaping from the hands of a too importunate gallant, in the 
forest of Harfz, in Germany ; the other of a horse-shoe in a .solid rock, 
near the village of Thai, in Switzerland. 



48 ) 



• The character of the Upper Lake, which has frequently 
been compared with the Derwent-Water, in Cumberland, 
is quite distinct from that of Turk or the Lower Lake. It 
is entirely encompassed by mountains ; and, on looking 
back, the pass by which you entered upon its surface, 
is totally lost in the confusion of hill, promontory, and 
bay. In this retreat from the busy scenes of life, the 
beautiful and the sublime are exquisitely united; the 
expanse of water is no where very great, except near 
the entrance, by Coleman's Leap ; but the number of 
islands is very considerable. 

To the south, Cromiglaun Mountain rises from the 
very water, behind which is Eshnamuch/, from which 
runs a considerable stream, falling into the Lake, in a bay 
parallel to the passage between the Lakes, and possessing 
a beautiful fall, called Esknamucky Cascade. To the 
west of Cromiglaun, or the Drooping Mountain, is Derry- 
Curinihy; in a glen to the west of which is a pretty little 
cottage and demesne belonging to the Rev. Mr. Hyde, in 
the vicinity of the beautiful fall called after the mountain 
itself. Mr. Hyde's cottage is a private residence ; there- 
fore, although the politeness of the proprietor permits the 
approach of strangers to his cottage, they should not 
expect nor wish for permission to disturb this gentleman's 
dom.estic retirement. The cockswain should inform 
his party, that this cottage is not intended as a ban- 
queting-room, and that permission to walk through 
these grounds is a special favour. To the west of Derry- 
Cunnihy Mountain, and separated by the met Kavoge, is 
Derry-Dimna Mountain, one of whose sides is clothed 



rPPER LAKfi. 40 

with a rich wood. The Coombui Mountains are seen in 
the distance towards the south-west point, and Bdrnasna 
more westerly. In the west also are seen Baicm, with its 
coni-formed summit, and Mac Gilly Cuddy's Reeks, 
with their lofty, shattered, and shelving tops. These 
hills, the highest in Kerry, are composed of a sort of 
stone, which is easily shivered by the storms, afterWinter, 
and slides down the steep precipitous face of the moun- 
tains, nor rests until it reaches the deep ravines at the 
foot of these almost inaccessible cliffs, so that it may, 
perhaps with some reason, be concluded, that their height 
is somewhat diminished in the lapse of time. The nearest 
of the Reeks to the Lake is called Ghirmeen, or Ghera- 
mine.* At the foot of Ghirmeen is the entrance to the 
wild and beautifully sequestered valley of Comme Dviflf. 
The river which waters this enchanting vale, is navigable 
as far as the boat-house of Lord Brandon, where is a 
place for disembarking, whence a path- way leads to the 
cottage of his Lordship, totally embosomed in wood. 

In the centi-e of the garden attached to the cottage, on 
the summit of a little eminence, stands a round tower, 
about forty feet high, erected by his Lordship, probably 
in imitation of the ancient towers in Ireland, of which it 
is an exact resemblance; the situation too, being not 
unlike that of the tower of Glendaloch, in the county of 
Wicklow, is precisely such as the ancient projectors of 
these extraordinary edifices would have selected. There 
is a ladder inside, (rather inconvenient on account of 
its extreme perpendicularity,) by which you may ascend 
the summit, where is an extensive prospect of the 

» Ghirmeen is also called Doogery, and Deiry-Carnagh ; opposite Ghir- 
meen ate the hills of Cahirnee, Derry-Lishigane, Galloveely, and Derry- 
Arde. Cromiglaiin includes also the hill of Bolinendra. 



50 UPPER LAKE. 

unexplored valley and lakes of Comme Duff, the sides 
of the prodigious mountains closing up the vale, and 
the islands of the Upper Lake, virith the always- ob- 
truding Turk, which appears of a perfectly different 
form and outline in this situation from its general shape 
and appearance. Perhaps it would not be proper to direct 
the tourist to the cottage of Gheramine and to Lord 
Brandon's tower, as being completely accessible to the 
" foe and the stranger," since an introduction to his 
Lordship is thought necessary. 

North of the Lake are Ghirmeen and the Purple 
Mountain, at a distance; the Long Range, backed by the 
Purple Mountain, Tomies, and Glena. The Purple 
Mountain is very properly so denominated from the 
purple hue it possesses when seen from almost any 
quarter, and by any light. This extraordinary colour 
is attributed by most tourists to the heath, " or rather to 
a little nameless plant, bearing a purple flower, that covers 
the surface of the mountain ;" but this is certainly a mis- 
take, and the cause of its continuance was the want of 
originality in the writers who described the beauties of 
KUlarney, and who took up this idea without sufficient 
examination, merely because it was current before. When 
the sun shines strongly upon the summit of this mountain, 
a quantity of loose stones shivered on its surface may be 
seen, which reflect a purple colour, and to which the hue 
of the mountain is to be attributed ; this opinion is also 
adopted by that accomplished, judicious, and learned 
tourist Sir R. C. Hoare. 

The islands in the Upper Lake are very numerous, 
and many of some importance ; they generally consist of 
a green stone, which, close to the water, assumes a dark, 
muddy hue. This does not occur in the Lower Lake, nor 



UPPER LAKE. 51 

ill Turk, to the same extent, the islands in them being 
of limestone, which admits of such varieties of fantastic 
forms. 

And here, as in all her works. Nature has proved her- 
self the most accomplished artist, in adapting the light 
and airy tints of the limestone rock to the gay and 
luxuriant shores of Glena and Mucruss; and the more 
dingy shadows to the bold, terrific, and savage features 
of tlie Upper Lake. Tliis exposure of the rocky bases of 
the Islands, and stony strands, which occurs in the 
Lakes of Kerry, forms a distinguishing character between 
these and the English Lakes, where the green sod al- 
ways confines tlie apparently overflowing waters, pro- 
ducing the idea of eternal plenitude. 

The most prominent of the Islands, upon entering the 
Upper Lake, is Oak Isle, or Rossbm-kie, a very beautiful 
object, rising from a rocky base, and crowned with wood ; 
from its shores is a splendid and majestic view of the 
loftiest mountains, grouped in the most varied manner. 
The Reeks, Sugar Loaf, and Purple Mountain are most 
striking and grand, and Turk, which is now left behind, 
assumes a totally different aspect. The space between 
this and Turk is occupied by the fantastic promontory of 
Newfoundland, over-hanging the inlet into which the 
Esknamucky falls. A walk along the banks of this last- 
mentioned stream will surprise and delight the tourist ; 
but such little expeditions can be undertaken and enjoyed 
only by one who has a longer period at his disposal than 
visiters generally bestow upon the Lakes. 

Doubling Coffin Point, the headland sheltering the bay 
or inlet of Derry-Cunnihy, the waterfalls in the river 
Kavoge are approached ; these are more numerous, and 
generally better supplied than any amongst the Lakes', 



I»2 UPPER LAKE. 

and embosomed in the most enchanting sylvan scenery. 
From Coffin Point is a commanding view of the Long 
Range, Ghirmeen, and JVIac GUlicuddy's Reeks. Coast- 
ing along the shores of Derry-Cunnihy and Derry-Dimna 
Mountains, a httle archipelago is entered, containing 
seven islands. 

Passing Eagle's Island the visiter is surprised at 
the sight of a solitary cottage on one of these little 
water-girt isles, more lofty than the rest. It was built 
by Mr. Ronan, a gentleman of independent fortune, who 
usually spent two or three months in each year, in this 
secluded spot, devoting most of his time to shooting 
and fishing. In the Summer of 1821, Ronan's cottage 
was in a state of wretchedness and rum. Parties, some- 
times, bring their provisions from KUlarney and dine here; 
but owing to the miserable accommodation, the cot- 
tages of Glena, Dinis, and Inisfallen, are generally pre- 
ferred. The island is thickly wooded with oak, arbutus, 
&c. and is accessible only in one spot, close to the cot- 
tage. A path winding round the island conducts at last 
to an eminence about thirty feet above the surface of the 
Lake, whence there is a very extensive prospect toward? 
Carriguline, Derry-Cunnihy, and all the surrounduig 
mountains. The surface of this island is covered with 
infinite strata of decayed leaves and brambles. Those at 
a great depth are bound and united in such a manner, as 
to form one continued mass of putrefied matter, becom- 
ing, in proportion to its depth from the surfece, darker 
in colour, until at the bottom, where the dissolution is 
most perfect, and the pressure greatest, it is one continued 
black turf. This fact may tend to explain how many of 
the bogs in Ireland may have been formed ; for it is per- 
fectly ascertained, that most of the mountains, and even 



UPPER LAKE. 53 

a great portion of the plains, were once thickly covered 
with forest trees.* 

The same combination is also discoverable in other 
islands in the Lakes, but is most obvious upon Ronan's. 

Leaving Ronan's Island, and pursuing a westerly- 
course, Stag Island next presents itself, of a similar cha- 
racter to the others in this Lake, its rocks crowned with 
rich foliage. Beyond this, the valley between Ghirmeen 
and Barnasna lies expanded before you, and in centre 
the stately tower of Lord Brandon is seen rising above 
the woods. The other islands in this cluster are called 
McCarthy's, Duck, and Arbutus. The channels between 
them open to new and varied scenes, which, combined 
with panoramic views of rock, wood, and mountain, pro- 
duce one of the most awfully sublime pictures in Na- 
ture. The northern shore affords equal beauty and 
variety of prospect ; and, after sailing under the Long 
Range, conducts back once more to the singularly con- 
tracted entrance at Coleman's Leap. 

The stream now carries the boat along so pleasantly, 
that the assistance of the oar is hardly necessary. The 
former views along the passage are transposed, and 
Turk is hardly recognised, appearing so black and 
shapeless. 

The navigation of this natiu-al canal is peculiarly de- 
lightfiil at evening time : the smoothness of the water, in 
which are seen reflected the woods and hills : the stillness 



* Upon a close inspection of the Irish turf, it will be found to consist 
of fibres of moss, grass, branches, leaves, with a small quantity of earth, 
whence it is easily reduced to ashes. Whereas the Dutch turf consists 
entirely of earthy matter, which is very heavy, even vi'hen dry, and bnihs 
for a considerable time, producing also an excellent charcoal. 
F 3 



■S4- UPPER LAKE. 

■of the atmosphere, so appropriate to the production 
of echoes beneath the Eagle's Nest, the meandering of 
rthe river, and the exuberance and luxuriance of the 
arbutus, yews, and hollies which clothe the banks, produce 
the most deUghtful and gi'atified feelings. 

It is quite absurd to pouit out particular stations where 
advantageous views may be had, for the precise spot can 
seldom be discovered; and besides, every tourist finds 
the greatest pleasure in making such discoveries for him- 
self; and stations would be multiphed in infinitum, if 
all those that are worth mentioning were pointed out 
here : yet general hints may sometimes be given with 
advantage. In visiting the Upper Lake, the stranger 
ought to endeavour to ascend Cromiglaun, from whose 
summit is a most agreeable bird's-eye view of the Lake 
and Islands ; for, in consequence of their irregular dispo- 
sition, a person merely sailing round the Upper Lake, 
carries away a very imperfect idea of its shape or mag- 
nitude. 

The Upper Lake is about two miles and a half in length, 
but its breadth irregular. The rocks and islands are in- 
habited by hawks, ospreys, eagles, and other birds of 
prey. In a tour through Ireland, made in the year 1797, 
by Mr. Holmes, is the following very just estimate of the 
comparative picturesque merits of the three Lakes of 
KUlamey, and the serpentine river which connects 
them : " I should distinguish the Upper Lake as being 
the most sublime ; the Lower the most beautiful ; and 
Turk, or Mucruss, the most picturesque: the winding 
passage, leading to the Upper, contains a surprising com- 
bination of the three, and probably is not to be exceeded 
by any spot in the world." 

Mr. Curwen, whose taste and feeling as a tourist are 



UPPER LAKE. 55 

acknowledged and admired, and whose admiration of the 
beauties of Nature is sufiiciently testified by his residence 
on Windermere, institutes a very just comparison between 
the Lalces of Killamey and those in the north of England. 
" As a landscape for casual contemplation/' says Mr. 
Curwen, " I should prefer Killarney; as a permanent 
residence, I should choose Windermere." No tourist has 
ever indulged in more rapturous expressions of admiration 
and ecstasy, or been so sensibly affected by the sublime 
scenery of Killamey, as the celebrated agriculturalist 
just quoted ; but there is one passage in his uiteresting 
narrative, which seems to have been written under dif- 
ferent feelings, and when memory refused to renew his 
former pleasures : that is the description of the passage 
between the Lakes, which has here been spoken of in terms 
of extravagance and delight. Mr. Cur wen says, " We 
had to pass for two miles up a narrow rapid river, whose 
xushy sides, with the flat, boggy ground between the 
mountains, were by no means consonant to the high ideas 
we had formed of the approach to the Upper Lake. As a 
foil, however, nothing of contrast could be more effectually 
disposed." To this opinion he will hardly procure a 
proselyte. 



( 56 ) 

Leaving the village of Killarney to the north, and 
directing our course towards Mangerton, several gen- 
tlemen's seats are passed: Woodlaw^n Cottage, on the 
river Flesk ; Cahernane, the seat of R. T. Herbert, esq. ; 
Lord Headly's Lodge, on the opposite side of the road ; 
and Castle Lough demesne, the seat of Dr. Lawler. The 
demesne of Cahernane is extensive and interesting, 
although the grounds are perfectly flat, and Castle Lough 
formerly boasted a strong but small fortress, built upon 
a rock, w^hich, having surrendered to Colonel Hierome 
Sankey, was so totally demolished by the Parliament's 
army, under Ludlovr,* that scarcely a trace of it can now 
be discovered. A broad and level road, over-shaded by 
full-grown limes, leads from Flesk bridge to the village of 
Cloghereen, a distance of about two miles from Killarney. 
Here is the entrance to the beautiful and romantic 
demesne of Mucruss. 

On entering* the village, a small mean gate-way on the 
right admits to Mucruss grounds ; just within the gate is 
an old building, formerly occupied by the miners em- 
ployed on the peninsula. Crossing a little stream, and 
stretching a short distance across a beautifully sloping 
and verdant lawn, the steeple oft Irrelagh, or Mucruss 
Abbey, rears its venerable head amongst the lofty Limes 
and Ashes. 

The visiter is at first disappointed by the lowness of 
the steeple and walls of the Abbey in general, but this 
defect is amply compensated for by other attendant 
circumstances. 

* See Ross Castle. + i. e. ou tlie Lakes. 



MUCRU3S ABBEY. 67 

According to Archdall this Abbey was founded by 
Donald, son of Thady McCarthy, in 1440/ for conventual 
Franciscans, and further improved and repaired by him 
in 1468, a few months before his death. In 1602 it was 
re-edified by the Roman Catholics, but was soon after 
suffered to go to ruin. 

The Abbey consisted of a nave, choir, transept, and 
cloisters, with every apartment necessary to render it a 
complete and comfortable residence for the venerable in- 
mates who once dwelt there. It is even now so perfect, 
that, were it more so, the ruin would be less pleasing. 
The entrance is by a pointed door-way, ornamented with 
an architrave, highly enriched by an infinity of plain 
mouldings. The interior of the choir is awful, gloomy, 
and solitary, heightened almost to the terrific, by the in- 
decent custom of piling the melancholy remains of mor- 
tality in every corner ; and so familiar is the care-taker 
with these sad relics, that he has even had the indelicacy 
and hardihood to group them here and there in fantastic 
forms. Sir John Carr speaks of this in verystrong language: 
"So loaded with the contagion is the air in this spot, 
that every prmciple of humanity imperiously calls upon 
the indulgent owner, to exercise his right of closing it up 
as a place of sepulture in future. I warn every one who 
visits Killamey, as he values life, not to enter this Abbey. 
Contrast renders doubly horrible the ghastly contemp- 
lation of human dissolution, tainting the surrounding air 
with pestilence, in a spot which Nature has enriched with 
a profusion of romantic beauty." This statement is ra- 



• There was a religious house on the same site before this period, as 
appears from a MS. in Trinity College, Dublin, wherein it is stated that 
" the Church of lirelagh was burned in 1192." 



58 MUCRUSS ABBEY. 

ther overcharged, and the request here made of closing the 
cemetery totally impracticable in a country where reli- 
gious superstition prevails so strongly. 

The choir is entered by a narrow pointed arch of suffi- 
cient breadth to admit a distant view of the tomb of the 
McCarthy Mores, and the great eastern window. The 
steeple rests upon four lofty, narrovf, pointed arches, and 
is of rather trifling dimensions. 

This Abbey, says Archdall, has continued to be the 
cemetery of the IM'Carthys. Donald, Earl of Clancare^ 
and Patrick, Lord Kerry, the Earl's nephew, who died 
in 1600, lie entombed here. In the floor of the choir is a 
large marble flag bearing the arms of the M'^Carthy 
Mores. In the northern wall of the choir, in the corner, 
is a monument bearing an inscription to the memories of 
Donald M'Finee and Elizabeth his wife, dated 1631; and 
in the same wall is the following inscription in church 
text : " Orate pro felici statu Thadi Holeni, qui hunc 
sacrum conventum, de novo, reparare cnravit, Aimo 
Domini 1626." 

Many valuable relics were said to be preserved in this 
Abbey. An image of the Virgin Mary, of miraculous 
powers, was also said to belong to it. The landed pro- 
perty, amounting to four acres, two orchards, and one 
garden, estimated at I6s. per annum, was granted to 
Captain Robert Collam, upon the dissolution of religious 
establishments throughout the kingdom, in the 37th of 
Elizabeth ; but from the date of the inscription on the 
northern wall of the choir (1626) it is obvious the monks 
continued to inhabit it some time after. 

A large stone in one angle of the choir, of rather mo- 
dern date, bears the following extraordinary inscription : 
T. S. D. m'^ : m : Rahily : oR'' 



MUCRUSS ABBEY. 59 

There is a small chapel branching from the choir^ en- 
tered by a handsome pointed door-way enriched with 
plain mouldings. The steeple once contained a bell, 
which, not many years ago, was found in the Lough, 
and recognised, by the inscription upon it, as the former 
property of IMucruss Abbey. 

The cloister is even more perfect than the steeple or 
choir ; it is a dismal area of forty feet square, encom- 
passed by an arcade, lighting the surrounding corridore, 
which is about five feet in breadth ; on two of the adja- 
cent sides are twelve arches of the Saxon style, while 
those of the two remaining sides, ten in number, are in 
the pointed style of architecture. The pillars of the 
arcade are composed of a greyish marble, unornamented, 
except by a few horizontal grooves at equal intervals. In 
the centre of the cloister stands a majestic yew, whose 
stem rises perpendicularly to the height of about thirty 
feet, and whose sheltering branches are flung across the 
battlements, so as to form a perfect canopy. The gloomi- 
ness of the cloister is so much increased by this curious 
circuiTtistance, that some persons have not nerves suffi- 
ciently strong to endure a lengthened visit within its pre- 
cincts. The guide generally recommends visiters to beware 
of injuring this sacred tree ; and a story is gravely nar- 
rated of a soldier who having the impious audacity to strip 
a small piece of the bark with his pen-knife, instantly 
expired on the spot where this sacrilege was committed. 
Beneath this gloomy shade four tombs, devoid of inscrip- 
tion, and of recent date, are discovered, probably be- 
longing to persons of the religious order. The remaining 
part of the ruin contains the different apartments 
appropriated to the accommodation of the original 
recluses who inhabited these cloisters. On the ground- 



60 MUCRUSS ABBEY. 

floor is a long narrow room, but imperfectly lighted^ 
called the cellar ; the ceiling, which is an arch of stone, is 
rather a subject of curiosity, as showing most clearly the 
manner in which arches were thrown or turned by the 
masons of ancient days. A frame of wicker-work, toler- 
ably strong, was covered with a thick coat of mud or 
marl, and being reduced into the required shape, used 
as the mould to build upon ; the wicker-work being re- 
moved, the marl adhered to the arch, and is still per- 
fectly obvious. The floor of the wine-cellar exhibits a 
spectacle shocking to humanity ; lids of coffins, with their 
commemorating inscriptions, skulls and bones, which 
have not yet lost the odour of putrefaction, lie strewn 
upon the ground. In a small closet, near the wine-cellar, 
myriads of coffin boards are stowed in, so that all en- 
trance is prevented. At Ardfert and Lislaghtin, in this 
county, the same abominable practice is also permitted. 

Over the cellar is the kitchen of the monks, with its 
floor perfect, but without a roof, and there John Drake, a 
pilgrim, lived for the space of twenty years, and withdrew 
secretly after this long penance. Next to the kitchen is 
the refectory, preserving a chimney-piece, or rather fire- 
place, and might have been a very comfortable apart- 
ment. The dormitory is also tolerably complete, and 
was a long narrow room, capable of accommodating 
a number of persons of humble habits of hfe. A second 
pilgrim took up his abode in the upper chambers of 
the Abbey, but his devotion was not so sincere as 
that of his predecessor ; for, after a lapse of two years, 
he thought proper to retire. The Festival of St. Francis, 
the patron saint, is celebrated here in the month of July, 
upon which occasion the peasantry assemble in great 
numbers, to receive the benedictions of their pastors, and 



IRISH CRV. (ii 

make their confessions amongst the tombs and ruined 
walls of this venerable building. Nothing can inspire a 
more sincere feeling of reverence and awe than a glimpse 
of the reverend minister seated on a tomb, within the 
dark and gloomy recesses of the Abbey, attentively lis- 
tening, or fervently praying over the penitent prostrate at 
his feet. The cemetery on the south of the Abbey is 
crowded with tombs and monuments. Persons of pro- 
perty generally hollow out a rock, and throw an arch over, 
which permits the coffins to be pushed in at one end, and 
is afterwards closed by a large block of stone in which 
a ring is inserted ; but the poorer classes are laid in the 
earth, seldom more tlian twelve inches below the surface. 

The variety of trees and plants around the walls of 
the Abbey, is probably greater than in any other spot in 
the neighbourhood ; limes, elms, ash, sycamore, horse- 
chesnut, &c. besides one plant, the wild hop, which is 
met with only here. There is one iriore circumstance 
connected with this Abbey, which, though not more pecu- 
liar to it than to other favourite burying places in Ireland, 
yet, from the frequency of its occiurence here, and the 
scene where it may be w^itnessed, is interesting to a 
stranger, and is quite characteristic of the Irish nation, — 
I mean the " Irish Cry." 

The custom of pouring forth a loud strain of lamenta- 
tion at the funerals of their friends and relatives, though 
now, probably, peculiar to Ireland, is of very ancient 
date, and can be traced back to heathen origin with 
tolerable certainty. As far as the analogy of languages 
will prove, there is very singular testimony to this point : 
the Hebrew is Huluul; the Greek, Hololuzo ; the Latin, 
Ululo ; and the Irish, Hulluloo. If it be then of heathen- 
ish origin, it may be supposed to ai'ise from despair. 



62 IRISH CRY. 

but if otherwise, from hope. That it is not a fortuitous 
coincidence of terms, hut also a similarity of customs, to 
which these mixed modes are applicable, may easily be 
proved. We find in the sacred scriptures, many passages 
proving the existence of this practice amongst those who 
used the Hebrew tongue : " call for the mourners," &c. 
" man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go 
about the streets," &c. Its existence amongst persons 
speaking the Greek tongue, is proved from the last book 
of Homer, where females are introduced mourning over 
Hector's dead body : 

" Alternately they sing, alternate flow 

" The obedient tears, melodious in their woe." 

It is not alleged that the Greeks introduced the name, 
or the custom; but that the Greeks were in Ireland, might 
perhaps be proved from the Greek church at Trim, in 
the county of Meath, and also from the life of St. Vir- 
gilius, bishop of Saltzburg, where mention is made of 
bishop Dobda, a Grecian, who followed St. Virgilius out . 
of Ireland, Amongst the Romans there were women 
called Prwficce, who uttered the conclamatio, and Virgil, 
speaking of Dido's funeral, says, " Femineo ululatu tecta 
firemunt." 

The analogy between the Roman and Irish funeral 
ceremony, before the government of the Decemviri, was 
amazingly striking. The Keenaghers or Keeners (for so 
the Prajicw mulieres are called by the Irish), are in the 
habit of beating their breasts, tearing their hair, and 
wringing their hands. Now we find the following law 
relative to Roman funerals, amongst those of the twelve 
tables: " Mulier ne faciem carpito" — " Mulieres genas ne 
radunto." The antiquity of this custom is thus esta- 



MUCRUSS DEMESNE. 65 

blishcd beyond doubt, and secures for the Irish pcasaiitry 
the sanction of ages for a practice, which a stranger 
might otherwise contemplate with horror. 

An Irish funeral is generally attended by an immense 
crowd, the Keenaghers leading the way, and some 
female relative frequently sitting upon the coffin as it is 
borne to the grave. For one or two evenings previous to 
the day of interment, the corpse is ivaked, a ceremony 
attended rather with merry-making than mourning. The 
songs of the Keenaghers are certainly by " distance 
made more sweet," and have then a plaintive, melan- 
choly character, not without some regularity. They 
consist mostly of repetitions of a few words, " Why did 
he die, why did he die?" or some little sentence expressive 
of the good qualities of the deceased. 



JWucrttS^ Mtmt^nt* 



This beautiful and extensive demesne belongs to Mr. 
Herbert, and was part of an enormous grant of lands, 
made by Elizabeth, to sir William Herbert of St. Julians, 
in the county of Monmouth, whose daughter and heiress 
married Lord Herbert of Cherbury, created Lord of 
Castle Island in this county, by letters patent, dated 
Dec. 31st, 22nd of James I ; and by Charles I, a peer 
of England, by the title of Lord Baron of Cherbury 
in the county of Salop, 7th of May, in the fifth year 
of his reign. The first of the Herberts who settled in. 
this county was Thomas Herbert, of Kilcow, esq. of 



64 MtlCRUSS DEM ESN 111. 

which lands and others, he was enfeoffed by Edward 
Lord Herbert of Cherbury and Castle Island, April 18th 
1656, from whom the present possessor of Mucruss is 
descended.* 

The demesne includes a large tract of land on the 
borders of the Lower, and Mucruss Lakes, extending 
from Castle Lough to the foot of Turk, together with the 
Peninsula of Mucruss, which separates these Lakes. After 
visiting the Abbey, a pleasing walk through the woods 
leads to the summit of a hill called '' Drumaouk;"t 
from this rising ground is seen the house of Mucruss, 
with its verdant lawn enclosed by a wood which fringes 
the Lake, and continues along the entire peninsula to 
the point of Cammillan, a distance of nearly three miles. 
On the opposite side of the Lake, Tomies and Glena 
rise from the water with incredible magnificence, and 
possess a soft and gentle outline, while the Eagle's Nest 
exhibits a bold, broken, and savage aspect. Here it is, 
then, that the flat, swampy grounds about Killarney 
are enabled to contribute to the beauty of the scenery, 
by the contrast they afford to the opposite shore. The 
house of Mucruss is old and tasteless, and the gardens 
are remarkable for possessing more rock than earth, 
from which spring the most delicate shrubs, and in the 
most luxuriant manner. A road cut through the wood 
leads to a marble quarry, from which green, red, black, 
and variously coloured marbles have been raised. The 
quarry is a broken, bold shore, surrounding a small bay. 



• For a more minute account of this ancient family, see Smith's Kerry, 
pege 83, et seq. 

j Sir R. Hoare calls it Druin O'Rorke, 



MUCRUSS PENINSULA. 65 

anci ornamented with the most beautiful shrubs, scattered 
amongst the crags, and growing apparently in the 
fissures of the rocks. 

In passing along this winding, in-egular path, occa- 
sional glimpses are caught of the Lake, sparkling 
through the thick foliage; and sometimes an opening 
amongst the trees permits a view of the Lower Lake, 
and the lowlands near KiUarney on the right; while 
Turk Mountain, hanging over the intervening Lake, is 
seen to the left. The shafts of a copper mine are also 
to be met with, on the peninsula, but the mine has not 
been worked for some years. When the works were 
discontiimed, about twenty-five thousand pounds worth 
of ore had actually been sold. Besides marble and 
copper, this peninsula also contains iron ore, a quantity 
of which was also raised ; and O'Flaherty, in his Ogygia, 
quotes Nennius, an author of the ninth century, to show 
that tin was also found about Lough Lein. 

In pursuing the tour of this peninsula, several beau- 
tiful bays ai-e discovered, one in particular, whose rocky 
arms, which embrace it, are crowned with arbutus and 
holly. The promontory of Dindog is another beautiful 
and interesting object ; but it would be quite impossible 
to describe the infinite variety of scenes the pedestrian 
will discover in wandering along the shores of this ex- 
tended peninsula. 

Having reached the extreme end of the promontory, 
a bridge of one Gothic arch, whose chord is twenty- 
seven feet, and altitude seventeen, affords a passage to 
Brickeen Island ; and it was the intention of Col. Her- 
bert, at whose expense this arch was thrown across, to 
continue the communication between Brickeen and Dinis 
Islands ; and thus, by means of Old Weir Bridge, the 

G 3 



66 MANGERTON MOUNTAIN. 

Upper Lake might be visited, either by the pedestrian or 
by a rider mounted on a shelty. 

Here again the English lakes afford facilities to the 
totirist, which those of KUlarney refuse. There is scarcely 
a lake in Cumberland or Westmorland which cannot be 
perfectly seen and admired from the roads and pathways 
along the margin; for instance, from the road from 
Newby Bridge to Ambleside, along Windermere ; from 
Ambleside to Keswick, by Rydal, Grasmere, and Lethes 
Water ; and all round Derwent Water ; whereas KUlar- 
ney must be seen from the water, because there is 
no road or mode of conveyance for seeing it in any other 
manner ; and though the mountains appear higher, when 
seen from the water, it ought not to be forgotten that 
the lake itself is excluded from the view taken from a 
boat on its surface. The views from the water are not 
the most enchanting about Lough Lein, and the tourist 
should avail himself of any opportunity of landing, and 
ascending a rock or hill from which he could look down 
on the lake below. 



iHangeiton iHoantatn. 

From the little village of Cloghereen a road leads to 
the base of Mangerton, which, considering its height, 
is the easiest to ascend of any hill to be met with in a 
mountainous region. It was for many years considered 
the highest in Ireland, and set down in the old maps and 
surveys, as being 2,470 feet in height. But many valuable 
improvements have been made in the mode of measuring 



MANGERTON MOUNTAIN. 67 

the heights of mountains, by which this error, with many 
others of a similar description, have been detected. It 
is now ascertained by the measurement of Mr. Nimmo, 
that the lieight of Mangerton is 2,550 feet, while that of 
Carran Tualis 3,410. 

Near thp village a guide, provided with a horn, is 
generally in attendance, and conducts you by the easiest 
path towards the summit. Here, however, the tourist is 
subject to great annoyance, arising from the number of 
men and boys, who run on every side of him, without 
uttering a syllable, but merely keeping up with his horse. 
Entreaties to desist from this undertaking, as one would 
be sufficient to point the way and tell the names of dis- 
tant objects, are of no avail ; one says, " No gentleman 
ever prevented hi?n from ascending the mountain ;" a 
second avers, " That he is the Man of the Mountain ;" 
and a third declares his resolution of not quitting the 
party till their return to the village : it is useles to resist, 
and the visiter has often six or eight guides forced on 
him, whatever may be his inclination. 

After an ascent of about half an hour, an elevation, 
equal to that of the summit of Turk, is reached, from 
which a most perfect bird's-eye view of the lakes, 
speckled with islands, is obtained, and a correct idea of 
their relative positions afforded. At every step after this 
the view becomes more and more commanding. The 
road between JMangerton and Turk, leading to Nedheen 
or Kenmare, which is eleven miles six furlongs distant 
fi-om Killarney, may be traced along the brow of the 
mountain for a considerable distance. Keeping to the 
east of the mountain, the Devil's Punch Bowl is reached, 
without the trouble or necessity of once dismounting 
from your shelty. Tills celebrated pool is of an oval 



C8 MANGERTON MOUNTAIN. 

form, and perhaps two furlongs in diameter ; its waters 
are very dark and cold ; on one side the mountain rises 
very precipitously over it, while the other is protected by 
an elevation merely sufficient to confine its waters.* — 
Weld mentions an anecdote of JMr. Fox, whom he states 
as having swam round this pool, but I should think the 
experiment hardly practicable ; for although with respect 
to distance it might be done by a person of great 
bodily strength, and experience in the art of swimming, 
yet the cold would most likely produce cramps that' 
would either endanger life or compel the resignation of so 
hardy an attempt. It has generally been considered that 
the Devil's Punch Bowl is the crater of an extinct vol- 
cano, but there are, at this day, no remains discoverable 
around the mountain to justify this conclusion. There is 
a path leading round the Bowl, and to the very summit 
of Mangerton, from which there is a most extensive and 
sublime panoramic view in clear weather. The most 
beautiful object is the river of Kenmare, an arm of the 
sea, insinuating itself amongst the recesses between the 
mountains. The coast towards Bantry is also extremely 
grand; but the most commanding and attractive objects 
are the Reeks and Sugar-loaf; to the north-west Castle- 
main and Dingle Bays, MUtown Bay, and the Tralee 
Slountains are seen. While on the edge of the Punch 
Bowl, the guide places his auditors behind a rock, and 
descending to the edge of the bowl, blows his horn in a 



* Buslie's etymology of the appellation " Devil's Pimcli Bowl," is ex- 
treinely ludicrous. " This pool," says he, " being supplied by an inex^ 
liaustible spring at the bottom, may and was, consequently compared to 
the bowl of pinieh round which a party was assembled, into the bottom 
of wliich Satan had inserttil an invisible spring, imperceptibly recruiting 
llie continued riccrensc of the liqiior mthin.''—Hib. Ctiriosa. 



GLEN OF THE HOR^^E. G9 • 

tremulous mamier, which produces a most singular effect. 
This experiment was first suggested by ?vliss Pluratree. 

There are several plants to be found on Mangerton, 
although its surface appears waste and barren in most 
places. Very near the top the London-pride, which is 
in England a garden flower^ grows in great abundance. 
Close to the Punch Bowl grows the narrow-leaved moun- 
tain golden rod, besides the upright fir-moss, the 
fingered hart's-tongue, the cypress or heath-moss, the 
fenane-grass, the mountain millet-grass, and the moun- 
tain fern. 

On Mangerton is found a species of whetting stone, 
whose grit is extremely fine ; it is used by the peasantry 
for razor hones: when found upon the mountains, it is of 
a light olive colour ; but the process of preparation, by 
boiling it in oil, changes the colour to a darker shade, and 
makes it assume a more close, smooth, and compact 
textvire. 

From the Devil's Punch Bowl flows a well-supplied 
stream, the chief feeder of Turk Cascade. 

After siurveying the grand spectacle firom the top of 
Mangerton, there is a descent by a different route, which 
the guide is unwilling to be at the trouble of showing 
you, but which is much more interesting tlian the path 
by which the ascent was made ; it is that by the Glen of 
the Horse, called by the inhabitants of the mountain, 
" GLEANNA CAPULL." This Glen is divided firom 
the Punch Bowl, by a lofty ridge or shoulder of the 
hill ; its sides are quite precipitous, and a descent is, 
except in a few places, quite impracticable, and even in 
these not unattended with danger. One side consists 
entirely of broken craggy rocks, the habitation of the 
eagle alone ; the bottom is occupied by two small dark 



70 GLEN OF THE HORSE. 

loughs, on whose banks a few sheep and goats are ena- 
bled to procure subsistence for some months in the year. 
In this solitary region of desolation, which the man of 
the world would turn from with fear and trembling, 
human beings are known to spend part of their wretched 
existence: their dwellings are in the dark and dismal 
caverns in the rocks, and their only companions the wild 
bu-ds that scream over then- heads, and the cattle which 
their time is employed in tending. 

The easiest entrance to this secluded glen, is by the 
narrow opening through which the overflowing of the pool 
discharges itself. The name is derived from the circum- 
stance of a horse's having fallen down its steep rocky side 
in Winter. The effect of the horn or bugle in this Glen is 
even more extraordinary than in the Punch Bowl, the 
buz or hum being louder and more tremulous. 

From the separating ridge between Gleanna Capull and 
the Punch Bowl, other pools or loughs are discovered, 
one Lough Na-maraghnarig, in a very elevated situation, 
and Lough Kittane, about two miles in length and one 
in breadth, in the Glan Flesk Mountain. The view to- 
wards Glan Flesk, Filadavne, the Paps, &c. is waste 
and dreary : that part, usually called O'Donohoe's coun- 
try, is particularly desert, wild, and desolate. And 
although at a remote period it was the lordly demesne of 
a petty prince, as O'Donohoe's Castle, still raising its 
ruined tower in the centre of this barren waste, sufficiently 
indicates, yet it is now almost ungrateful to the eye to 
rest upon. 

The descent of Mangerton is more readily accom- 
plished on foot than on horseback, and is equally easy, 
pleasant, and interesting as the ascent: on the way 
visiters arc generally met by a few children, with bowls 



AHHAUOK. 71 

of goat's whey in their hands; and although they do not 
request the stranger to notice them, they expect he will 
taste uninvited : these are the least troublesome, the 
easiest satisfied, and, after the fatigue of cUmbing the 
mountain, the most welcome intruders met with at 
Killarney. 

The horses are generally led by one of the many 
attendants the tourist is compelled to employ, to a con- 
venient place of rendezvous, from Avhence the ride to 
Killarney, by Cloghereen, is extremely agreeable and 
sheltered. Between Killarney and Mucruss, on the 
opposite side of the road, is a small ruined chapel on 
the very summit of a rath, from whence an extensive and 
distinct view of the Lower Lake might be taken, but 
it does not differ much from that seen from the top of 
DnuTiai-ouk hill. 



The r6ad north of Killarney leads to the ruined church 
and tower of Aghadoe, about two miles and a half dis- 
tant. Within the deer-park of Lord Kenmare, the en- 
trance to which is on this road, is a very pleasing view, 
and one in which the whole detail of the landscape can 
be minutely and satisfactorily gazed upon, from a green 
mound in his Lordship's park, called " Kneckriar Hill." 
Proceeding towards Aghadoe, we leave Prospect Hall, 
the seat of G. Cronin, esq. on the right ; from the lawn of 
this demesne is a fine panoramic view of the Lower 
Lake, precisely the same as that from Aghadoe, except 
that the latter is more distant from the different objects. 



72 AGHADOE. 

From hence the road is bleak, dreary, and uninteresting 
for some miles, particularly when the mountahi-view on 
the left happens to be intercepted by walls, trees, or 
hedge-rows. At the end of the second mile a narrow 
road leads to Aghadoe church, situated on the top of a 
long, low, green hill. The lane is impassable for car- 
riages of any sort ; but the visiter will not regret the 
trouble of walking, if the day be fine, and the weather 
clear, as at every step the view increases in extent. 
richness, and sublimity. 

The church of Aghadoe is a venerable, ancient build- 
ing, originally of but rude workmanship, measuring, 
probably, between eighty and ninety feet in length, and 
about thirty in breadth ; the whole length is separated 
by a thick wall, in which traces of a door- way are dis- 
coverable. The chancel was lighted from the east by two 
long lancet loop-holes, but the whole is, at this day, 
in such a dilapidated condition, that but a very imperfect 
idea can be formed of what it originally might have been. 
The door-way is a very masterly specimen of the ex- 
cellence of the art of sculpture in those days ; six suc- 
cessive mouldings, of different patterns, chevron, or zig- 
zag, and others, ornament its architrave ; and though 
carved in an exceedingly soft species of stone, are all 
perfect and beautiful specimens of a master's hand. 

The date of the foundation of this Abbey has not yet 
been ascertained. In a MS. in the College Library, &c. 
the following passage occurs relative to this church, which 
differs from what Archdall quotes as being contained in 
the Annals ofMunster, and therefore it may be concluded 
that he did not consult the MS. himself. The passage in 
the MS. Trin. Coll. is " aenn, alias Hugh Connor 
G'Donnagadhoee's son died, and was buried in the (Ms in 



AGHADOK '5'.3 

the Monasticon) old abbey of O'Mathgamna (Aghadoe), 
anno 123 1 ." It is obv ious that the difference bet w een the 
College MSS and the Monasticon, leaves the founder still 
unknown. Seward mentions that the ancient sees of Ard- 
fert and Aghadoe were united in 1663. *The latter 
see now possesses but one dignitary, an Archdeacon, 
who enjoys the entire rectory of Aghadoe, besides some 
small tithe interest, and glebe, of which there is no re - 
gistiy. The old cathedral was dedicated to St. Finian. 
QSee Inisfallen].t 

The present appearance of the ruin and cemetery is 
extremely disgusting, and the smell frequently offensive : 
skulls, bones, and cofHn-lids are scattered every where, in 
the same horrible manner as at Mucruss, Ardfert, and 
Lislaghtlin ; and although divested of the gloomy accom- 
paniments of long dark aisle and shady yew, still appear 
chilling and terriiic. The number interred here exceeds 
that at Mucruss, partly because this is considered a 
more ancient cemetery, and partly because it is free from 
charge for burial. 

Near the church are the niins of an old round castle, 
usually called the Pulpit, the interior diameter of which 
is twenty-five feet ; its height, at present, is about thirty 
feet, nor does it appear to have been much more lofty. 
It evidently consisted of but two stories, of which the lower 
:or basement was lighted by one window, the second, by 
three. The ascent was by a staircase constructed within 



• See Ware's Bishops. 

t In the MSS. of Trin. Coll. Dub. is another pa^ssge relative to Aghii- 
doe, of an earlier date than any hitherto quoted, (lire): '< Cormack's (son 
of Daniel O'Carthy) army sojourned at Aghadoe two days and two nights, 
after the ransacking of Cork"— i. e. fifty-five years previous to the earliest 
date mentioned in the Monasticon. 



74 OGHAM INSCRIPTIONS. 

the wall. Ronnd castles are rather uncommon in Ireland ; 
there are two others^ liowever, nearly of the same height 
and diameter as this of Aghadoe, existing, the one at Wa- 
terford, called "Reginald's Tower/' the other in the county 
of Tipperavy, called "Nenagh Round.'' Dolbadern Castle, 
ill the vale of Llanberris, in North Wales, is extremely like 
this at Aghadoe, winch must have been a place of de- 
fence, as appears from the fosse and mound encompass- 
ing it. 

In the Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, may be seen a 
plate of a stone in the walls of Aghadoe Cathedral, on 
which is cut an inscription in the Ogham character. This 
mysterious hieroglyphical letter, whose powers are now 
totally lost, was used by the ancient Irish or Indo- 
Scythians. The inscriptions are merely horizontal, or per- 
pendicular lines, intersected at right-angles by a number of 
parallel lines, or darts, of imequal lengths. The learned Mr. 
Pelham supplied General Vallancey with many instances 
of such inscriptions in the county of Kerry, which have 
beeji published in the sixth volume of the Collectanea. 

A very remarkable stone of this description stands 
about fifteen yards from the church of Kill-Melcheder, in 
this county, and another, of a conical form, at Ballysteeny. 
Of the stone at Aghadoe Mr. Pelham speaks as follows: 
" In the north west corner of the old church of Aghadoe, 
near Killarney, is a rough stone, of the brown mountain 
kind, with a few Ogham characters upon it. The stone, 
as it now lies, is about seven feet in length ; but it is pro- 
bable it was once longer, and stood erect, as its larger 
end has an appearance of having been broken, and thrown 
^own by violence into its present situation. This in- 
scription is possibly imperfect, as there is an appearance 
of a scale of stone having come off from its smallest end. 



ANTIQUARIAN SAGACITV. 70 

The characters near the middle of the stone are three and 
a half inches long." 

As to the meaning or translations of tJiese .mystical 
writings^ the antiquarian should conjecture -with caution ; 
one instance from many may indicate the propriety of this 
advice. In the catalogue of inscribed stones, in the fith 
vol. of the Collectanea, is one mentioned as being found 
in the county of Kilkenny by ]\Ir. Tighe, and said to bear 
an inscription in the Pelasgic letter, which in Roman 
characters would be * 

BELT DI UOSE: 
this, after much learned disquisition. General VaUancey has 
sagaciously translated thus : " To Belus, Gkjd of fire," 
whereas, had it occurred to these learned gentlemen, who 
really were an ornament and benefit to tlieir countiy, to 
turn the inscription upside doAvn, they would have found, in 
plain English, the following name and date : " E. CONID, 
1731," it having since been found to be the fact, that 
it was cut by a stone mason of that name, who lived 
in the neighbourhood. 

One subject yet remains to be spoken of, before we 
quit the antiquities of Aghadoe, viz. the Round Tower, 
within a few yards of the church. The remains of this 
building are rather insignificant, not exceeding twenty 
feet in height, and completely filled with rubbish ; it was 
built of brown stone, trimmed on the exterior surface. Of 
the origin and use of these extraordiuaiy buildings, mar.y 
conjectures have been formed by antiquarians, of the merits 
of which let the reader judge, when he has seen the struc- 
tures, and perused and reflected on the theories foimded on 
them. The followers of Giraldus Cambrensis conceive these 
towers to have been ecclesiastical buildings, and tliat proba- 
bly they were the retreats of penitents or anchorites; otliers 



76 ROUND TOWER!. 

suppose them to have been erected by the Daneti, as watch- 
towers at first, and afterwards converted into belfries.- 
General Vallancey supposed they were for the purpose of 
preserving the sacred fire, and consequently of much 
greater antiquity than is generally attributed to them. 
That they might have been anchorite towers is possible ; 
but this theory rests on the weakest arguments : it is true 
they were divided into stories, as is manifest from the 
ledges upon which the floors were laid, and v/hich are 
visible in all the towers; yet the lower chambers must have 
been totally divested of light, for loop-holes are found in 
A-ery few of them. The conjecture of their being penitential 
residences, in which the sinner was removed Irom story 
to story as he improved in piety and awakened to a sense 
of error, rests on the sole evidence of an iniauthenticated 
MS., found by Dr. Smith at Cork, in which they are termed 
" Indusoria." Dr. Pvlolyneaux, as well as some others, at- 
tributes their erection to the Danes, in the ninth century, 
and he concludes, rather hastily, that they were always in- 
tended as belfries. If so, what was the occasion of their ex- 
traordinary height } why is the door at such an elevation 
from the ground — sometimes twenty feet ? And could 
not the bell have been tolled by a rope reaching from top 
to bottom, which the stories seem to prove was not 
done.'' Besides, it ought to be observed, that granting 
they, were used as belfries, we find churches built sub- 
sequently to the towers, and not many feet from them, 
with steeples for the suspension of bells, and these steeples 
of ths same diameter as the upper stories of the tovv'ers, 
60 that thej could not be meant for the suspension of 
bells of various sizes. It has often been argued that the 
Hound Tower at Ardm.ore has been med as a belfry, be- 
cause part of the oak suspension-beam is still visible ; to 



ROUND TOWF.Rf. 77 

tiiis it may be said, that this is the only instance in 
which such remains have been found, and it may have 
been, and most probably Avas, a secondary application of 
the tower. The awkward position of the bell-ringer, out- 
side the door, proves the thing to have been, even then, 
but badly contrived, as he was not only exposed to the 
severity of the weather, but the bell-rcpe was liable 
to the touch of any mex'ry passenger v/lio chanced to 
pass that way. 

The supposition which would have them anchorite 
or penitential towers, rests on the authority of Mr. 
Harris, who says, that " according- to tradition," an 
anchorite monk lived at the top of Drumlaban Tower, in 
the county of Gavan, which is still called Cloch-Ancoire, 
or the Stone of the Anchorite. The Pillar of Simon 
Stylites ujmu which he used to sanctify himself, is also 
made to contribute an analogical argument ; and the 
Rev. Thomas Harmer's description of a square tower in 
the Holy Land, is also applied to this purpose, which, al- 
though the least noticed, is probably the strongest case 
that could be adduced in support of the anchorite doc- 
trine.* 

As to the name " Cloch-theach," the house of the bell 
or the belfry, by vrhich the Irish peasantry continue to 
denominate these towers, it cannot be attended to, when 
we call to mind the ridiculous epithets they are in the 
habit of bestowing upon all the antiquities of their native 
residences, such as Giant's Rings, Giant's Cut, &c. and the 
Druidical Cromlech is never called by any appellation 
but " The Big Stone." The traditionary history pjce- 



See Vol. 9 of tiie Ar 
H 3 



7B ROUND TOWERS. 

served by such uninformed peasantry ought not to be 
valued; besides^ it is not denied thatthese towers were con- 
verted into or used as belfries about the ninth century, 
and consequently the original name may fairly be supposed 
to have been lost by distance of time, as well as the 
certainty of their original application. The most original 
theory that has been advanced for a series of years, is 
that of General Vallancey, who says, that the old Irish, 
or Aire-Coti, the primitive Inhabitants of the Western 
isles, Avere the Aii-e-Coti of Caucasus, and were from 
the banks of the Indus, where they had mixed with the 
Brahmins, at that time in the habit of building round 
towers, for the preservation of the holy fire; and that 
it was in imitation of these, the round towers in Ireland 
and Scotland were built. It would be greatly out of 
place to introduce here the arguments urged in support 
of the last opinion ; but it may be observed, that being 
almost entirely deduced from the similarity of terms in 
the Eastern and Irish languages, they exhibit ingenuity, 
although they fail to convince. 

To conclude this interesting and diflScult subject, let 
us inquire for what piurpose most of the eastern towers 
have been built, and what the name Tower is derived 
from? Upon numerous hills and promontories the oriental- 
ists were in the habit of building obelisks and towers, 
consecrated to some guardian deity. These served a 
two-fold purpose, as land-marks and watch-towers by 
day, and as beacons by night. Granting, then, that these 
Irish towers are the workmanship of the old inhabitants 
(in which opinion the most learned antiquarians concur), 
built at first afiter the manner of the eastern beacons, and 
subsequently, in the time of Giraldus, " more patrio," 
why should they not have been for the same purposes ? 



ROUND TOWERS. 7g^ 

The whole Island was divided into petty principalities, 
the rulers of which were eternally at variance; and 
wherever a settlement existed, a watch-tower appears to 
have been erected, most likely at the expense and by the 
assistance of the surrounding inhabitants ; for they were 
raised of stone and mortar, when the adjoining monas- 
teries were of wood, as if they were of vital consequence 
even to persons more remote. Their uses at night might 
have been of great importance ; in a country infested by 
wolves, without the convenience of high-ways, and whose 
tranquillity was so much disturbed by the proximity of 
the enemy's territories, beacons would be as useful to the 
traveller, the wanderer, or the troops returning from 
predatory excursions, as to the mariner at sea, or the 
caravan in the wilderness, both of whom, when the com- 
pass and the star-light fail to guide them, pray for a 
glimpse of some terrestrial beacon to direct their erring 
steps. Arguments are not wanting to continue the 
defence of this suggestion, but this is not the opportunity 
to multiply them too much. 

There is, however, one consideration more, that 
appears to contribute light and life to this idea, viz. the 
derivation of the word Tower. The Latin " turns" 
is not unlike, and this is derived fi'om the Chaldee 
-in> Thor, a tower, and Is, fire, i. e. a fire tower, a beacon, a 
light-house,* which precisely corresponds to our suggestion. 
The Greek Tr-jgyoj, a tower, is represented by Lexicographers 
as a boundary or land-mark, but some more rationally 
derive it from ttjo, fire, to which might-be subjoined, as a 
termination, ayog, any thing sacred, which would make 



Bryant's Antient Mythology. 



80 ROUND TOWERS. 

Tiu^yo;, or 'TTVPayc;, signify the sacred fire, and thus, from 
the derivation of ■nvoyo;, the relation between ancient 
towers and fire or light may also be established. 

Those who attribute the erection of the roiuid towers 
in Ireland to much later dates, and to Christian artificers, 
rest on one solitary proof (for Ledwich's translation of 
Cambrensis is decidedly incorrect) viz. the image of our 
Saviour on the cross, carved on the key-stone of the door- 
way of the tower at Donaghraore, in ,the barony of 
Navan, county of Meath.* But this sculpture might be 
of later date than the tower, and the work of some 
religious persons, with whom this country abounded; 
or this tower might have been erected at a late period ; 
but, in any case, one instance cannot establish the fact, 
in opposition to a number of between fifty and sixty 
tow^ers which have no device: and the most highly 
finished tower in Ireland, that on Devenish Island in 
Lough Erne, the key-stones of whose upper windows are 
ornamented with heads, is yet without any sculpture 
eniblematic of Christianity. 

There are two towers in Scotland, the one at Brechin, 
bearing a religious device, the other at Abernethy in 
Murray, but there cannot be the least doubt that these 
were erected by the Irish (who held intercourse with 
that kingdom, although they did not v.dth England 
or Wales) and after the introduction of such buildings 
into this country. 



The same occurs in tlie round tovier of Brechin in Scotland. 



{ 81 ) 
liunlce Castle. 

The road from Aghadoe to Laune-bridge continues 
along a flat country, unvaried by improvements. Near 
the bridge the Castle of Dunloe appears raising its head 
amongst the forest-trees, and having its gloomy outline 
relieved on the surface of the still-gloomier mountains 
behmd. The castle, the residence of Major Mahony, is 
an ancient hold, modernised in a comfortable manner > 
the floors are of yew w-^ood, more beautiful than the 
closest mahogany, and the apailments extremely com- 
modious. Owing to the extraordinary thickness of the 
woods, the views from the walks are interrupted, but from 
the embattled summit of the walls it is very commanding. 
This castle was frequently the retreat of the Kerry 
chieftains in the wars, during the reign of Elizabeth, and 
under the Commonwealth government. 

A small well-made mountain road leads from Dunloe 
into a defile in the mountains between Tomies and 
M-^Gilly-Cuddy's Reeks, called the Gap of Dunloe. The 
hiU on one side of the entrance is called the Holly Moun- 
tain, that on the other the Bull IMountain, but both are 
mere shoulders or projections of the larger hills! The 
entrance to the gap is very narrow, and the mountains 
quite perpendicular on each side. In a little wild ro- 
mantic glen, a short distance from the entrance, is a small 
lake, whose waters assume a particularly dark hue, from 
the reflexion of the enormous mountain which hangs so 
immediately over it. On penetrating into the defile, our 
admiration of the wild scenery is gradually exchanged for 
a feelmg of awe and an impression of fear, until a pass is 
reached, so narrow that there is space merely for the scanty 
road and the little dark, gloomy, lake beside it ; the hills oh 



82 COMMB DUFF LAKES. 

either side ascend in steep^jperpendicular, precipitous crags j 
masses of enormous bulk lie tossed about in all the terrific 
sublimity of chaos^ and instances have been known of 
pez-sons, who, v/hen they have arrived at this spot, v/ere 
so paralysed with terror, that no earthly inducement 
could persuade them to advance, dreading- that the 
mountain might fall and overwhelm them. Two small 
bridges are thrown across the stream which runs through 
the defile, in the narrowest parts of the channel ; yet, from 
the simplicity of their structure, these do not interrupt the 
character of the scenery. In one particular part of the 
pass, the road runs along the mai'gin of a black pool, and 
is so unprotected, as to inspire the equestrian traveller 
with fears, that, should his horse trip, he might be preci- 
pitated into the lake. But a scene of this description 
defies the address of the most expert tourist, and the 
pencil of the ablest master: it must be seen to be 
imderstood. Those who have visited the passes of Bor- 
rowdale, in Cumberland, may form a faint idea of the 
chilling, dreary grandeur of Dunloe ; but the pass of 
Llanberris, in North Wales, bears a still greater resem- 
blance, and he who has seen the Gap of Dunloe, will not 
be over-awed by the sublimity of Llanberris, nor will 
the deep-rooted image of jDunloe be eradicated by the 
combined beauty and grandeur of Eorrowdale. 

From the entrance of the Gap to the farther end, 
opening into the vale of Comme Duff, thence to Ghera- 
mine, the seat of Lord Brandon, is about four miles; the 
road from the outlet of the gap to his Lordship "5 cottage, 
is in a rude, unfinished state, but improvements are daily 
making. Here a long-extended valley is opened to the 
view ; at the western extremity of which is a very con- 
siderable lough, called the Red Trout Lake? Nearly 



CARRAN TUAL. 83 

opposite the termination of the Gap is a beautiful water- 
fa]], of considerable height, and always plentifully sup- 
plied ; tJie waters of this fall flow into a succession of 
small lakes, occupying the Avhole length of the valley. 
In some are islands bearing shrubs upon their surface, 
and others are decorated with water-lilies, A visit to 
this valley would occupy only one day, and would richly 
compensate the visiter. The overflow of the three lakes 
of Comme DufF discharges itself iuto the upper lake at 
Cariguline. 



^^ttnt oi Carran Cwai * 

The youthful traveller seldom quits the scene of in- 
quiry without ascending the highest mountain and pene- 
trating the deepest glen. In all mountainous districts 
there is always one peak famed for its extraordinary ele- 
vation and difnculty of access. In the vicinity of Lough 
Lehi, Carran Tual is the cloud-capped summit, marked 
out as the highest. Mangerton was formerly considered 
higher, but the late measurements of ]\Ir. Nimmo have 
shown Carran Tual to be 3,410 feet above the level of 
the sea, while Mangerton is only 2,550. 

Having taken horse at Killarney, pursue the Aghadoe 
road, and so pass over the Laune-bridge, by Dunloe 
gate ; then, turning to the right, at the distance of a 
mile is a little village, at the very foot of the Reeks. 
Here a guide, who understands the shortest routes up 
the hill, and is consequently better qualified than any per- 
son from Killarney, m.ay be had for a trifling sum. Being 



" * i.e. " The inverted reaping hook," which the outline of the summit 
strongly resembles, 



S4 THE HAG'S TOOTH. 

•properly equipped for an arduous and laborious pedestrian 
■excursion, direct your course towards the mountain, 
either leaving your horses at the guide's cottage until 
you return, or, which is a much more advisable plan, 
sending them back to Killarney, having previously directed 
a boat to meet you, at Lord Brandon's boat-house, at the 
extremity of the Upper Lake. 

The m.ountain bridle-road leads from the village over a 
low range of hills to Mr. Blennerhasset's shooting-lodge, 
on the banks of the river Giddah, a considerable moun- 
tain-torrent, flowing into the Laune. On Lishbaun 
Mountain is the first view of Dingle Bay ; and, crossing 
the Gaddah River, and passing a gradually sloping vale 
of moss and rock (very fatiguing to the pedestrian whose 
feet are not protected by- very strong shoes), the Hag's 
Glen is entered! To the right a lofty green mountain, 
called Konnock a Brianihn, i. e. the hill of the sheep- 
raddle, darkens the valley, and opposite, is the beetling 
brow of the lower reeks, perfectly inaccessible to all but 
the wild birds which nestle in their fronts. 

The Hag's Tooth is a small conical projection from the 
mountain, resembling the flying buttress of a moulder- 
ing edifice, whose brow is shattered by the effacing 
finger of decay. Around and above are seen small black 
lakes, whose tints are borrowed from the impending 
crags, called the Devil's Lough and the Hag's Lough, 
&c., the latter having a small island in the centre. 
While gazing on the ruinous prospect which surrounds 
on every side, except the path by which this sequestered 
excavation is entered, the visiter forgets for a moment 
the task to be accomplished ; but the suggestion of the 
guide that the sun delays not his daily course, quickly re-i 
calls him to a sense of the voluntary labour he has under- 



THR ASCENT OF C'ARRAX Tl'AL. 85 

taken. To the query of " whicli way?" tlie guide only 
raises his cudgel, and points to a cleft in the face of the 
mountain, formed by a i-ill that occasionally forces ita 
way down hi rainy weather, A feeling of vanity, 
natural to pedestrians, prevents any observation upon 
the manifest difBculty and even danger of the ascent, and 
the attack is generally begim in silence and determina- 
tion. For about a quarter of a mile the path continues up 
the steep, through rocks, stones, long grass, moss, and 
shingle; whenever a steady footing is obtained for a 
moment, you are induced to turn and enjoy the scenery ; 
but from the deep retreat in which the path- way is em- 
bosomed, the view is greatly contracted, and altogether 
interrupted towards the west. This steep pass once 
overcome, the difSculties vanish, but are succeeded by 
ideas of danger. The way to the highest peak lies along 
the summit of a ridge, something like the red ridge on 
Snowdon, the top of which is narrow, convex, and 
covered with grass, so short and slippery that it can 
hardly be walked over in dry weather, unless in stocking 
feet. The tops of the reeks are composed of a species of 
shingle, which, after heavy falls of snow, loosens and 
unbinds, and glides down the mountain's breast in the 
thaw; for this reason naturalists say the height of the 
reeks may have been sensibly diminished in the lapse of 
time. The principal stone to be found upon the reeks is 
sand-stone, and the plants are the same as those on 
Mangerton, London-pride growing in great abundance. 

The view from the top is most commanding towards 
the west. From hence are visible Dingle and Castlemain 
Bays, the Tralee Mountain, &c. ; to the south, Bantry 
Bay, and the indented coast of Kerry. 

The remainmg reeks appear like so many inclined 



86 DIRECTIONS FOR TOURISTS. 

planes, whose angles of inclination are all equal, so that 
they appear to lie in parallel strata. On the tops of 
several are small loughs, like those on Mangerton and 
the high mountains in the range. 

The view to the south-west presents a mountainous 
scene of the boldest description, the Glencar and M'Gil- 
licuddy's Mountains, with an endless succession of im- 
measurably extended wilds. 

The descent into the valley of Comme Duff is tedious, 
but not difficult ; the inclination is rather too precipitate 
to permit comfortable walking, and this renders it 
extremely fatiguing. Having reached the valley, there 
is a rugged, stony path, winding along through little 
deserted hamlets and barren wastes, which, after pursuing 
it for about four miles, brings you to the destined place 
of rendezvous — Lord Brandon's Boat-house. In a few 
minutes the anxious cockswain conveys the traveller to 
the cottage on Ronan's Island, where, after a journey of 
at least fourteen hours, the first opportunity of taking 
rest and refreshment is afforded. The lateness of the 
hour will not now admit of much delay, and Killar- 
ney will hardly be reached before eleven at night; 
supposing that five in the morning was the hour of de- 
parture. 



3Bfiertton*5 lor €oiivi^H, 

The following directions are drawn up in such a man- 
ner as to be serviceable to visiters under any circum- 
stances. It sometimes happens that while one traveller is 



DIRECTIONS FOR TOURISTS.-ONE DAY. 87 

exceedingly limited in time, a second may be desirous 
of finding difFei'ent routes for a succession of days. 
To the former of these, the most economic distribution 
of time^ — to the latter, abundance of diversified amuse- 
ment, is pointed out. 

Route by which the Lakes and Beauties of Killarney viay 
be seen in the space of a single day. 

Taking horses at Killarney, and being attended by a 
bugleman, also mounted, start at five o'clock in the morn- 
ing for Dunloe Gap ; tw^o miles and a half from Killarney, 
turn up a narrow road, to the right, and visit the ruined 
tower and cathedral of Aghadoe. Arriving at the bridge 
over the Laune River, cross and ride a few hundred yards 
farther to the gate of the demesne of Dunloe Castle : here 
there is not much to detain the traveller who is in haste, 
except the view from the battlements. Leaving Dunloe 
Castle, the seat of Major Mahony, about three quarters of 
a mile farthei*, enter the Gap of Dunloe. Here let the bugle 
be kept in constant employment. Halt in the narrowest 
part of the rocky defile, and observe the extraordinary 
effects of the bugle ; ride through the pass, and reach 
the valley of Comme Duff: here it will be necessary to 
send back the ponies, having desired guide-boys from 
Killarney, the night before, to meet you at that place 
for the purpose. The remaining part of the vale must 
be traversed on foot as far as Gheramine, the seat of 
Lord Brandon. Here ask permission to ascend the tower 
in the garden, from the top of which is a very command- 
ing prospect. Direct your cockswain and boatmen, the 
night previous, to have a boat, with a supply of provi- 
sions, to meet you near Lord Brandon's boat-house. 
Sail down the river into the Upper Lake, land on 



88 DIRECTIONS FOR TOURlSTt-.— ONE DAY. 

Iloiian's Islandj dine and rest in the cottage ; after which, 
ascend the peak, and view the amphitheatre of hills en- 
closing the lake. After taking refreshment, sail through 
the archipelago of the seven islands, and then dii-ect your 
course towards Derry-Cunnihy ; visit the waterfall, and. 
Mr. Hyde's cottage ; coast along the base of Cromiglaun 
iVIountain. Time will not permit a visit to Esknamucky 
Waterfall and Glen. Entering Coleman's Leap, sail down 
the passage between the Long Range and Newfoundland, 
until you reach the Eagle's Nest. Here disembark, and 
take a station which the cockswain will not fail to point 
out, while the swivel is discharged by the boatmen from the 
most advantageous situation for the production of echoes. 

Embarking again, continue your course with the 
stream, remembering to employ the bugle frequently 
along the passage between the lalies. The next object 
of surprise is the old Weir Bridge : here the unpleasant 
ceremony of shooting the bridge is to be submitted to. 
Arrived at Dinis Island, pass into Turk Lake, coast the 
base of Turk IMountain, and visit Turk Cottage and Wa- 
terfall ; there leave the boat, directing the cockswain to 
meet you again below the house of Mucruss, in Castle 
Lough Bay; ascend Mangerton, still accompanied by 
the bugle, and arriving at the Devil's Punch Bowl, try 
its extraordinary effects. The Glen of the Rorse cannot 
be visited upon this route. Descending to the village 
of Cloghereen, visit Mucruss Abbey, and passing on to 
the shores, embark once more upon the lake in Castle 
Lough Bay : sail round Ross Island to Inisfallen, thence 
to Ross Castle, where the guide-boys generally have a 
mode of conveyance ready to carry the traveller to Kil-. 
iarney. 

In this route, many interesting objects are necessarily 

L.o« V-. 



DIRECTIONS FOR TOURISTS.-TWO BAVy. 89 

neglected, and others but imperfectly seen, at the same 
time that a very extensive and delightflil tour has been 
accomplished in a wonderfully short space of time. The 
personal fatigue of this journey is great, and the arrange- 
ments require to be made with judgment. A six-oared 
boat should be employed, also excellent ponies, and active 
boys to rendezvous at the appointed places. 



Two Days Tour. 

The following directions will enable the tourist to 
economise time so far, that the lakes may be satisfactoiily 
seen in the short space of two days, by a strict adherence 
to the arrangements here laid down : — 

Having despatched a messenger, the preceding evening, 
to Mucruss House, or Cahernane, with a note requesting 
permission to visit the Abbey, and having obtained this 
favom*, leave the inn at five in the morning, mounted on 
a strong shelty, attended by a guide-boy and a bugleman : 
cross the Flesk Rivei", pass Cahernane, Castle-Lough, 
and Mucruss Demesnes, and leaving the village of Clog- 
hereen behind, ride up the front of Mangertcn JMountain : 
try the effect of the bugle at the Punch-bov,d; walk 
round the edge of the Bowl, along tlie summit of the 
ridge dividuig the Devil's Punch-bowl from Gleanua 
Capul], and let the bugleman descend a short distance 
down the steep side of the glen, while the tourist remains 
on the top. The effect of the bugle in tliis situation is 
very extraordinary, [See. jMangerton]. 

Let the guides conduct the sbelties to the foot of the 
mountain, and tliere await the party, v.'ho will find it 
more practicable to walk than ride down from the 

* Frouounced Ghuna Koj)hcl. 
i3 



99 DIllECTIONS FOR TOURISTS.— TWO DAYS. 

Punch-bowl. Having again reached the village of Clog- 
hereen, visit the Abbey of Mucrussand the Peninsula, and 
walk along the shore to Castle-Lough Bay. Take notice 
of the rock called O'Donohoe's Horse. Have the boat in 
waiting near the shores of Mucruss Peninsula, and 
coast along to Brickeen bridge. Here enter Turk Lake, 
and coast still along the Mucruss shore, passing the 
Devil's Island, and thence row to Turk Cottage. 

Disembark at Turk Cottage, and penetrate the wooded 
glen behind, in order to visit Turk Cascade, which flows 
from the Punch-bowl, lleturniiig to the boat, sail close 
under Turk Mountain to the Cottage on Dinis Island. 
Here dinner can be dressed in a very comfortable manner, 
and great civility will be met with from the cottagers. If 
the day should not be far advanced, refreshment may be 
postponed imtil the party reaches Glena, or perhaps 
Inisfallen Island. After walking through the woods on 
Dinis Island, sail out of Turk Lake by the passage be- 
tween Dinis and the mainland, into that leading to 
the Upper Lake. The rapidity of the current will 
soon carry the boat into Glena Bay. The Cottage of 
Glena will afford an agreeable place for rest and refresh- 
ment; but this should be regulated also according to 
the time of day : leaving Glena Cottage and Bay, sail 
close under Glena ^Mountain, and try the effect of the 
bugle. Double Glena point, and coast the base of Tomies 
to the river flowhig from O Sidlivan's Cascade. Here 
disembark, and visit the cascade. Returning to the boat, 
steer a little to the north, and make Inisfallen by a 
circuitous direction. This is the most desirable spot 
to dine at, and there is no danger to be appreliended in 
returning to Ross Bay at night-fall, the intermediate 
-water being scarcely ever in a disturbecj state. 



DIRECTIONS FOR TOURISTS.-TWO DAYS. 91 

Returning to Ross Castle, along the shores of the 
Island, at Lord Kenmare's boat-house, a delightful and 
surprising echo wUl be found from the castle. Arrived 
at the quay beneath the castle, ponies from the inn are 
generally in readiness to convey the visiters to Killarney. 
So ends the first day. 

At an early hour the second day, after breakfast, take 
shelties, and ride to Aghadoe; enjoy the view of the 
Lower Lake from the church-yard, and see the ruins of 
a round tower and castle. Proceed along the road at 
the foot of the hill, to the bridge over the Laune ; cross 
the bridge, and visit Dunloe Castle : this should occupy 
but a short space. Proceed to the Gap of Dunloe ; ride 
through the pass, remembering to keep the bugle con- 
stantly employed. Arriving at the termination of the 
pass, keep the left pathway down the valley of Comme 
Duff to Gheramine, the seat of Lord Brandon. Seek 
permission to ascend the tower in his Lordship's garden. 
The ponies should be sent back to KiUamey with the 
runners, from the termination of the pass. 

The boat should be in waiting at Lord Brandon's 
boat-house to convey the party to Ronan's Isle. Dine 
in the cottage, and row about amongst the Islands. 
Steer for Coffin Point, and, entering the little sheltered 
haven, disembark, and visit the Cottage and Waterfall of 
Derry-Cunnihy. Embarking again, and coasting the 
southern shore, visit the Waterfall and Glen of Eskna- 
mucky. Returning to the boat, and doubling the head= 
land, make your exit from the Upper Lake by Coleman's 
Leap. Sailing down the passage, or river, stop nearly 
opposite the Eagle's Nest, and land for a few minutes to 
hear the extraordinary echoes produced by the firing oi a 
small cannon, which is carried in the boat for this purpose. 

Soling with the current, by the Cannon Rock, Man-of- 



92 DIRECTIONS FOR TOURISTS.-THREB DAYS. 

War Rock, &Cv the next adventure is the shooting of old 
Weir bridge. The current is here very rapid ; and the 
little boat is hurried swiftly by O'SuUivan's Punch-bowl, 
and Dinis Island, into Glena Bay. Here again the effect 
of the bugle is delightful. Coasting along Glena Moun- 
tain, pass between Glena Point and Darby's Garden, 
and, crossing the Lower Lake to Ross Island, land at 
the usual place of disembarkation in Ross Bay. So ends 
the second day. 

Although it is practicable to see the beauties, curiosi- 
ties, &c, around Lough Lein, in the exceedingly short 
space of time mentioned in the preceding directions, yet 
that can be accompMshed only by very expert and active 
tourists, and will necessarily subject even them to much 
personal fatigxie. Those who are not so restricted in 
time, may of course visit the numerous interesting objects 
near KUlarney, not only in a less laborious, but also in 
a more perfect and satisfactory manner. Extend the 
tour to three days, and the time may be advantageously 
disposed of in the following manner. 



Three Days Tour. 

The first day will be entirely occupied in visiting 
Mucruss demesne and Abbey, IMangerton, the Punch 
Bowl, Gleanna Capull (the Glen of the Horse J. The 
Glen of the Horse is inaccessible at every point but one, 
viz. the egress of the rivulet from the two interior lakes. 
The tourist will have ample leisure to make an excursion 
into FUadaune, visit Lough Kittane, and enter the Glen 
of the Horse. A lazy guide always endeavours to deter 
the visiter from this last excursion, but the tourist will 
he richly rewarded for his trouble. 

The second day may be devoted to visiting the Lower 



DIRECTIONS FOR TOURISTS.-THREE DAYS. 83 

Lake; first, however, the demesne, house, park, and 
gardens of Lord Kenmare ought to be viewed, and 
Kneckriar Hill, in his Lordship's park, ascended, from 
which there is a very commanding view. Embarking a*; 
Ross Castle, row to Inisfallen, which will take sometime 
to see perfectly : thence, directing your route north- 
ward, come round to O'SuUivan's Cascade, on Tomie's 
Mountaui : thence to Castle-Lough Bay ; see the Drink- 
ing Horse, which \ras also seen the day before, from the 
shores of Mucruss. Enter Turk Lake, under Brickeen 
bridge, and, rowing across the lake, visit the Cottage and 
Cascade of Turk. Leaving Turk Cottage, coast the base 
of the mountain to the outlet of the lake, between Dinis 
Island and the Mountain; land on Dinis Island, and 
wander about amongst the woods and thickets, while 
the boat is rowed down the stream, and reaches O'Sul- 
livan's Punch-bowl, near which it generally awaits the 
passengers. The Cottage of Dinis affords tolerable ac- 
commodation, provided the party bring the materiel 
with them. 

Fi'om Dinis Island sail with the stream into Glena 
Bay. If the Cottage of Dinis be not found sufficiently 
attractive to induce the party to take refreshment there, 
Glena Cottage most probably will. Here a salmon is 
usually taken out of the lake, in presence of the party* 
and dressed on arbutus skewers for their dinner. Coast 
the base of Glena Mountain ; pass Darby's Garden, and 
cross the water to Ross Island- The bugle should be 
kept in constant employment in Glena Bay; and, near 
Ross Castle, let the boatmen rest upon their oars, while 
the bugle sounds a few interrupted notes, directing the 
mouth of the instrument towards the castle. Landing at 
Ross Castle, return by means of shelties to the inn, and 
BO complete the second day's tour. 



94 DIRECTIONS FOR TOURISTS.-THRBE DAYS. 

At an early hour on the mornuig of the third day, but 
remembering to take a hearty breakfast first, mount 
your shelty, and ride to Aghadoe Church. See the Round 
Tower, the Round Castle, called by the peasantry the 
Pulpit, and the stone bearing an Ogham inscription. 
Returning to the high road, pursue the road to Laune 
or Beaufort bridge, and, crossing the river, visit the 
Castle of Dunloe. After a short stay in the demesne, 
keep the mountain road to the Gap, and proceed, by slow 
and measured steps, through the Pass to the farther end 
in the vale of Comm.e Duff. The bugle should be kept 
in unceasing employment all through the Pass, but parti- 
cularly vmder the castellated cliff hanging over the pool, hi 
which the guide asserts there is an enormous serpent. 

Entering the valley of Comme Duff, visit the Water- 
fall, the best supplied cascade in the whole country. See 
the Islands on the Comme Duff Lakes, and foUovi^ing 
the stony bed of a little mountain torrent, arrive at Ghe- 
ramine, the seat of Lord Brandon. See the cottage and 
tower, and embark at his lordship's boat-house, where 
the boat from Killarney will be found waiting. Row to 
Ronan's Island, and having landed, take refreshment in 
the cottage ; then ascend the eminence on this island, 
and take a view of the seven islands. 

From Ronan's Island row to Deny-Cunnihy ; see Mr. 
Hyde's cottage and the cascade. Keeping the southern 
shore by Coffin Point, direct your course between Cro- 
miglaun and Coleman's Eye, and row to the extremity 
of the little inlet into which the Esknamucky River falls; 
disembarking here, walk along the banks of the river, as 
far as the cascade. On the way will be met some of the 
most retired habitations imaginable, in the veiy heart of 
the wild forests. 
Embarking once more, double the headland, and pass 



DIRECTIONS FOR TOURISTS.— THREE DAYS. 9v> 

through Coleman's Leap into the natural canal connect- 
ing the Upper and Lower Lakes. Observe the variouslj'^ 
formed rocks, viz. the Man of War and Cannon Rocks, 
&c. along the banks of this passage, and, arriving under 
the Eagle's Nest, it will be necessary to disembark for a 
few minutes, while the paterara is discharged against the 
front of the rock. The echo, however, is not returned 
from the Eagle's Rock, but from the deep bosom of the 
mountain adjacent to it. The rapidity of the stream, and 
the inclination and skill of the boatmen, it being now late, 
will speedily urge the oar-impelled bark to the old Weir 
bridge ; should the water be tolerably high, the ceremony 
of shooting the bridge is attended with rather agreeable 
sensations, and little danger ; but if otherwise, the boat 
will run considerable risk of striking against a rock, in 
its rapid progress, and in all likelihood be materially in- 
jured. The cockswain however never permits his company 
to remain in the bqat when there is any danger. 

From old Weir bridge the passage meanders through 
extremely-beautiful sylvan scenery. O'Sullivan's Punch- 
bowl is quickly passed ; Dinis and Brickeen Islands, the 
entrance to Turk Lake, and ultimately the Bay of Glena, 
are all soon left behind. 

The southern shore now possesses the greatest novel- 
ties to the visiter (having coasted the northern before), 
and, passing Brickeen bridge, let the cockswain steer due 
east, beneath the woods of Mucruss Peninsula. Sail 
then amongst the islands called O'Donohoe's Table, Alex- 
ander's Rock, Cow Island, Jackdaw Island, Yew Island, 
and Rough Island, to the northern extremity of Ross. 
Doubling the point, enter Ross Bay, and land under the 
castle, as before. This terminates the third day ; and if 
the weather should have been favourable, and the party 



m 



DIRECTIONS FOR TOURIST?.— ISLANDS. 



early risers, the beauties of Killamey will have been satis- 
factorily visited. Such a coincidence however, is not 
always to be found, nor is such speed required by all 
tourists: those who have sufficient leisure will occupy 
an entire week to visit the places mentioned in the three 
days tour. 

The Gap of Dunloe requires one day ; Mangerton and 
Filadaune a second ; Mucruss Abbey and demesne, with 
Turk Cascade and Cottage a third ; the Lower Lake, 
InisfaUen, and O'Sullivan's Cascade, &c. a fourth ; Turk 
and the Upper Lake will more than occupy the fifth ; and 
the ascent of Carran Tual is assuredly one day's em- 
ployment for the most active tourist in Britain. 



A LIST OF THE ISLANDS IN THE DIFFERENT LAKES. 



Ross Island 
O'Donohoe's Prison 

Chetr> Lsland 
Inisfallen Island 
Mouse Island 
Heron Island 
Lamb Island 
■Rabbit Island 
Rough Island 
Yew Island 
Cow Island 



Lower Lake. 

Jackdaw Island 
Osprey Island 
Drinking Horse 
Pigeon Island 
Crow Island 
O'Donohoe's Table 
Alexander's Rock 
Friar's Island 
Tom Cole's Rock 
Currigahccca Rock 
Oak Island 



Gunnet Rock 

Gun Rock 

Darby's Garden 

Burnt Island 

Brickeen Island 

Dinis Island 

Miss Plummer's Island 

The Three Friends,&c. 

Sugar Island 

Coarse Island 

Ash Island 



Turk Lake. 
There is but one, the Devil's Island. 



Rossburkie, or Oak Island 
Arbutus island 
Fiagle's Island 
Kmght of Kerry's Islwd 



Upper Lake. 

M'Carthy's Island 



:ny'! 

s Island 
Duck Island 
Stag Island, &c. &c. 



The cascades in the neighbourhood of the lakes are — 
O'Sullivan's, Comme-Duff Falls, FUadaune, Turk, Eik* 
Ittamucky, Derry-Cunnihy. 



1:K^ ILAISIJ Dir ElilLIiAIKI^lT 




Htufrated b\ 6tjd*HaIl tor Baldn t/i tradock Jl Jji Zondjn 



DIRKCTIONS FOR TOURISTS.— MOUNTAINS, 97 

Heights of the Mountains in the vicinity of Laugh Lein and of the Chain 
extending from Mangerton to Milt-street.— (From the Survey qf Mr. 
Isimtno). 

Carran Tual (the highest of the Reeks) 34 10 feet. 

Mangerton 2550 

Purple Mountain 2280 

Slieve Meesh 2200 

Tomies 2150 

Giena 2090 

Turk 1900 

Lake above the level of the sea 50 

Dunloe Heads (these are Bull and Holly Mountains) 1100 

Chain from Mangerton to Mill-street. 

Crohaune Mountain (over Filadaune) 21 75 

Paps (higher of the two) 2280 

Cahirbarna 200O 

Gortaveby 1500 

Knock Claragh (near Mill-street) 1 385 



T. C. HANSARD, 

Printer, ■ 

Peteiboroiigli Court, Fleet Street. 



I N D E X. 



ABBEYof Kilcrea,2 

Ardfinnan, 22 

Innisfallen, 2.i 

Mucniss, 42,56 

Aghadoe, Tl; Church, T2; Round 

Tower, 75 
Amethysts, 30 
Annals of Innisfallen, 22 
Anecdote, Oxonians, 33 ; Stags, 35 
Antiquarian Sagacity, 75 
Antlers of Deer dug up, 38 
Ardmore, Round Tower at, 76 

Ballincolly, Castle of, 2 

Barretts, Family of, 2 ; Tombs 

of, 3 
Battle of Knockniclachy, 1 1 
Bed of Honour, the Rock, 21 
Belfries, 76 

Brandon's, Lord, Tower, 49 
Brickeen Bridge, 40 
Island, 39 

Carran Tual, Ascent of, 83 
Cascade, O'SuUivan's, 26, 28 

, Turk, 42 

, Eskuamucky, 48 

Cahemane, 56 

Carr, SirJ. ; his Remarks on Mucrus3 

Abbey, 57 
Castle of Ballincolly, 2 

Kilcrea, 2 ^ 

Macroom, 5 

Brisbane, 5 

Ross, 11, 14 

Dnnloe, 8 1 

Castle Lough, 56 
Cave, remarkable one at Ovens, 4 
Cemetery at Aghadoe, 73 
Coffin Point, 51,52 
Coleman's Leap, 47 
Comme Duff Valley, 49 
Copper Mine, 69 
CromacM'Carthy, 3 
Cromiglaun Mountain, 48, 54 

Dane Hammers, 15 
Derry-Cunnihy, 51 
Devil's Punch Bowl, 42, 67 

Stream, 42 

Island, 43 

Lough, 84 

Dindog, Promontory- of, 65 
Dinis Island, 40 ; Cottage on, 40 
Dunloe Castle, 8 1 

, Gap of, 81 



Eagle's-nest Rock, 44 

Island, 52 

Echoes, Theory' of, 16 

Echoes, 16,17,31 ;atEagle'sNest,45 

Feet, Impression of, on Rocks, 47 
Festival of St. Francis, 60 
Funerals, Analogy between Irish 
and Roman, 62 

Gapof Dunloe, 81,82 

Ghirmeen,49 

Glen of the Horse, 69 

Glena Bay, 31 ; Cottage, 32 

Mountain, 17, 27, 29, 30 

Grattan, Mr., Bust of, 8 
Grotto, O'SuUivan's, 28 
Guides, Importunity of, 67 

Hag's Glen, 84 

Tooth, 84 

Lough, 84 

Herbert's, Col., Cottage, 40 
Hyde's, Rev. Mr., Cottage, 48 

Inscriptioas, 74; curious mislake 
of Gen. Vallancey with regard to 
one, 75 

Innisfallen, Island of, 19; its Sce- 
nery, 26 

, Abbey of, 25 

Irish Greyhound, 37 

Pearls, 30 

Turf, 53 

Cry, the, 61 

Funerals, their Analogy with 

Roman, 62 

Islands, viz. Ross, 14; Herron, 18; 
Lamb, 18 ; Brown, or Rabbit, 18 ; 
Mouse, 19; Innisfallen, 19; Stag, 
SO; Burnt, 30; Darby s Garden, 30; 
Dini:?, 39; Brickeen, 39; Devil's, 
43; Miss Plummer's, 44; Holly, 
46;Oak,51;Eagle's,52; Ronan's, 
52 ; Stag, 53 ; List of, 96 

Kenmare House, 8 

River of, 68 



Killarcey, Road to, from Cork, I 

Tovi-n of, 6; Reading- 



room, 6; Roman Catholic Chapel, 
7 ; Lakes, comparative merits of, 
54, compared with those of 
Windermere, 55 

Kilcrea Abbey, 2 

Kneckriar Hill, 71 



Lakes, exorbitant Charges for Boats, 
&c. 9 

Lakes, Comparison between the Kil- 

larney and the English, 66 
Lake, Lower, 11 

Turk, 39 

Upper, 48 ; Passage to, 43 

List of Islands, 96 

Mountains and Heights, 97 

Lough Lein, 2, 46 

Na-Maraghnarig, 70 

. Kittane, 70 

the Devil's, 84 

the Hag's, 84 

Ludlow, General ; his Account of 
the Siege of Ross Castle, 12 

Mac Gilly Cuddy's Reeks, 49, 81 

Macroom, Castle of, 5 

RomanCatholicChapel at,5 

Man of War Rock, 44 

Mangerton, 6, 66 

Mill-street, 5 

Mines on Ross Island, 15 

Miraculous Image, .58 

Molyneaux, Br. ; his conjecture re- 
specting Round Towers, 76 

Monastery, St. Finian's, 22 

Monument of the Rev. G. Tahan, 7 

MooseDeer, 3t 

Mountains, viz. the Paps, 6 

• Mangerton, 6, 66 

Tomies, 17, 27, 29 

Glena, 17, 27, 29 

Tralee, 27 

Turk, 41 

Long Range, 46 

Cromiglaun, 18 

Derry-Dimna, 48 

Purple, .10 

Carran Tual, 83, 86 



Ovens, remarkable Cave at, 4 
Oxonians, Anecdote of, 33 

Paps, the, 6 

Pearls, said to be found iu Lower 

Lake, 29 

■ Irish, 30 

Pelham, Mr., Inscriptions found 

by, 74 
Plants found on Mangerton, 69 
Prospect Hall, 71 
Pulpit, the ; a Castle so called, 73 
Purple Mountain, 50 
River, the Gaddah, 84 
Road from Cork to KiUarney, 1 
Rock, Man of War, 44; Eagle's 

Nest, 44 
Ronan's Cottage, 52 

Island, 52 

Ross Ca.stle, 11, 14 ; Siege of, 12 

Island, 11, 14 

Rossburkie, 51 
Round Towers, 76 

St. Dichull, 22 
St. Finian, 22 

's Monastery, 22 

Salmon Fishery, 32 
Stag-hunting, 34 

Talian, Rev. G., Monument of, 7 
Tour for one Day, 87 

two Days, 89 

three Days, 



Mucmss House <ind Abbey, 42 
Abbey, 56; Relics, 58 ; 

Cloisters, 59 ; Cellar, Refectory, 

&c. 60 

Demesne, 63 

House and Gardens, 64 



O'Donohoe's Prison, 1 7 
O'Donohoe, Tradition relative to, 
Ogham Inscriptions, T4 
O'Huihair, 23 
Old Weir Bridge, 44 
O'Sullivan's Cascade, 26, 28 

Grotto, 28 

'■ Punch-bowl, 43 



Tourists, Directions for, 86 
Tov»er.s, Round, 75, 8n 

in Scotlaml, J*!) 

Trees, reinarkhble, M 
Turk Lake, 39 

Mountain, 41, 6r 

Cottage, 4 1 

Cascade, 42 



Vallancey, General ; curious mistake 
by him respecting an Inscription, 
75 ; his Conjecture respecting 
Round Towers, 76 

Valley of Comme Duff, 91 

Whetting-stone, found on Manger- 
ton, 69 
Wolves, Extirpation of, 86 

Yew-tree, singular one at Mucrust- 

Abbey, 59. 
Young, Mr. ; Remarks on the want 

of Accommodations for Visiter* 

to the Lakes, 10 



THB END. 



MOV 4 1901 



. iBiiiii-~ 

020 954 538 A 



I 



A 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 954 538 P 



1 




